The Ministry of Civil Defence has released a revised plan for informing people about the risk of any future tsunami.
The government department was severely criticised for its response to the Samoan tsunami last year when key agencies including media outlets were left scrambling to confirm the risk it posed to New Zealand.
The alert sent out in September was the first national tsunami warning ever issued in New Zealand.
A report into the way the ministry kept the public informed and another into its internal operations found its systems for alerting the public unravelled.
The ministry says the revised plan focuses on getting information out faster. Staff must now contact media outlets at the same time as a warning is issued.
The ministry says any tsunami generated by an earthquake close to New Zealand may not provide time for warnings and households must have their own emergency plans.
Civil Defence Minister John Carter says he is confident the revised action plan will prevent a repeat of the confusion generated the tsunami warning last year.
A senior lecturer in Earth Sciences at Waikato University, Dr Willem de Lange, says misinformation spread by new technologies such as Twitter is a growing problem.
However, Mr Carter says future education programmes will help protect the ministry's credibility as the correct source of information.
