Last Mile - the Neglected Element of Early Warning Systems

Abstract

The origins of building early warning systems for large groups of population could be found between two world wars last century. One of the base requirements of warning systems was to build an extensive network of warning sirens. An integral part of warning technologies has been training people how to behave in cases of threat and danger. The performance of alerting infrastructure decreased dramatically after the collapse of communist regime at European countries at the beginning of nineties. It becomes increasingly difficult to bridge the ""last-mile"" between local emergency management authorities and the population in times of crises [5].The introduction of new technologies brings intense challenges to their application for the "lastmile" communication in the frame of early warning systems. However, there is no unified concept for newly conceived schemes of communication channels. The approaches of individual countries and regions to the "last-mile" communication differ from each other even dramatically [3], [4].Recently published a number of papers deal with the issue of accessibility and usability of communication channels. Klaft [5] on the example of subscription-based "Katwarn" system (multichannel alerting system, which offers the possibility to distribute alerts via SMS, e-mail, and pagers) tested reception of warning information (majority participants were people with some affiliation to emergency management). The alert message was randomly generated and sent on August 24th, 2009 at 14:09 CET. Approx. 25% of participations noticed and read the alert within ten minutes. This ratio increased to 32.4% within twenty minutes, to 47.9% within one hour. After five hours more than 35 % of participants didn't make any action (!).Another Katwarn case study observed actual user behavior on the same subscription-based system. After sending the test alert message at 9:58 a.m. to approx. 14 thousands subscribed users, the log files of the information website were analyzed to see how often the site had been accessed. Within ten minutes were identified only 6.1% of alert recipients. This number increased to 8.5% within 30 minutes and to 11.6% within two hours. After 24 hours, the ratio reached 17.4% (!).Research in Indonesia costal municipality [10] provides information about quantification of access to media by the type of media and time of the day. In the morning the main availability to get access is represented by mobile phones (63 %), TV (60 %), radio (55 %). Access to TV and radio raises during the day to 88 % (TV at the evening) and 64 % (radio). Sirens cover less than 48% of people.The role of early warning systems does not finish with the end of emergency. It is necessary to maintain communication connection even in times of crisis and in subsequent stages, i.e. recovery and resilience. Major problem remains to scientists and policies -how to effectively deliver the authorized recipient in case of emergency necessary adequate information in a timely manner, i.e. at the right time to the right place.It is evid...