Hawaiin Volcano
Coordinating public safety in extreme weather conditions
Recent events have once again highlighted the devastation extreme weather conditions can cause to communities across the world. In June and July both Pakistan and China fell victim to the annual storm cycles which, stronger than usual this year, lead to catastrophic flooding and a large-scale loss of life.
These events have once again brought the question of public safety warning and evacuation to the fore. Whether looking at the threats posed by hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or heavy snowfall, an enduring challenge for governments and local authorities across the world lies in establishing an effective communications channel to the communities endangered by extreme weather conditions.
The ability to communicate directly with large and geographically dispersed populations remains at the top of the agenda for emergency services and relief agencies alike.
The initial responsibility of the authorities is to communicate to all relevant communities that they are at risk so that they can take appropriate action. In many countries today, this alert is still often communicated through outdated and 'dumb' technologies such as a warning siren. While the siren tells people that something is happening, it cannot give any details on the nature of the threat and importantly what the appropriate response should be.
In regions where television and radio is prevalent a broadcast could provide the level of information required to take meaningful action, but such an approach is only useful if people are actually tuned in to the broadcast. During working hours it is arguable that only a very few people would pick up such a warning.
What is needed is a system that can immediately tell all people within a given location that a disaster is imminent and provide precise instructions on the appropriate action to take.
The most obvious channel for relaying this information is the mobile phone. Even in developing countries mobile phones are the most ubiquitous communications channel and subscription levels continue to grow exponentially.
In addition, as mobile phones can support text messages, they have the ability to convey the level of detail needed during disaster response. Getting the necessary information to mobile phones, however, is not as simple an issue as it first seems.
SMS text messaging, perhaps the most obvious choice, is not actually that well suited as a public warning messaging platform. The main drawback is that SMS is a point-to-point technology. This means that the warning message needs to be sent sequentially to each individual device. For a large scale disaster this equates to millions of messages and ensures that the process of sending the messages takes too long to be effective. By the time the disaster strikes many users may still not have received an alert.
Another drawback with SMS is that if it was to be used for public warning, the authorities would need to hold a database where each individual's phone number is logged. There are obvious privacy concerns here heightened by the fact that if the text alert was to be location-specific the authorities would need to track the movements of individuals. This is obviously far too 'big brother' to work in practice.
So what approach would work for a mobile-based solution to public warning? Cell Broadcast is one technology that meets all of the requirements for an effective alert system. To the recipient, Cell Broadcast is indistinguishable from a SMS text message, but its implementation is far more practical. The technology works on a one-to-many basis, meaning that one message can be sent to many hundreds of thousands of devices, instantly. These messages are sent to all phones within reach of specific mobile telephone masts, making it a truly location-specific solution and one without the need to register or track devices. As an early warning alert comes in for a flood in a specific geographic location for example, operatives can send a message to everyone within that area instantly, whether locals or visitors, giving them the appropriate level of information to take action immediately.
In the aftermath of a large-scale disaster, moreover, Cell Broadcast can continue to offer authorities a useful communications channel. Telephone networks often survive such disasters. However, due to the vast amount of traffic being sent over them as family and friends try to reach each other, they can fail. Cell Broadcast however has its own dedicated broadcast channel and would continue to function, allowing relief agencies to convey essential information to the public such as where food and medical relief can be found.
Cell Broadcast is an elegant and cost effective method of alerting the public in the event of major disruption caused by extreme weather. Moreover, following such incidents, it delivers a useful channel for providing the public with vital information with regards to health and wellbeing. It serves both as an early warning and also as a tool for coordinating and maximising the effectiveness of relief efforts.
Cell Broadcasting for public warning is not a new concept by any means, and is already a tried and tested method which is used globally for a host of weather and disaster warnings.
Systems such as the Commercial Mobile Alert Service in the US, EU-Alert in Europe and the Earthquake and Tsunami Warning System used in Japan have been successfully implemented, showing that Cell Broadcast is a trusted and reliable method of public warning and adaptable enough to fit the requirements of a global audience.
Maarten Mes, Managing Director of one2many
