Spatial performance of location-based alerts in France

Abstract

This study experiments a method for estimating and mapping the alerting potential of two Location-Based Alerting Solutions (LBAS): messaging techniques (cell broadcast, CBC, or location-based SMS, LB-SMS) and the smartphone push notification. Experiments have been evaluated over metropolitan France, a heterogeneously populated and risky area, considering that individuals are located at home. The rate of alertable individuals, calculated at the municipal level, show very strong potential of CBC/LB-SMS. 94.21% of individuals can be alertable using CBC/LB-SMS and 74.15% using the smartphone push notification. There is a very strong homogeneity in the performance of LBAS at the national level, but also local weaknesses exist. Mapping this potential of performance contributes to the discussion about the use of LBAS in France and paves the way for a broader assessment of the effectiveness of alerting solutions in order to propose a multi-channel system that will consider the territorial characteristics.

Are sirens effective tools to alert the population in France?

“…Sirens are among the most widespread tools to alert a population to danger (Sorensen, 2000;Bean et al, 2016;Sättele et al, 2016;Stokoe, 2016;Mathews et al, 2017;Goto and Murray, 2020;Bopp and Douvinet, 2020). Sirens are intended to adequately warn citizens of threats or dangers to life or property, such as sudden mass hazards (earthquake, tsunami), rapidly occurring natural hazards (wildfire, flash flood), industrial accidents (toxic gas releases, explosions), or terrorist attacks, and can be implemented at the scale of entire cities (Singapore, Bombay, or Mexico City) or countries (e.g., Japan, France).…”

“…They are effective in alerting an entire population, day or night (Zunkel, 2015;Mathews et al, 2017;Landry et al, 2019), provided that the distribution of sirens is dense enough to be heard by all. Sirens leave no time for hesitation and require immediate reactions (Reed et al, 2010;Cain et al, 2021;Fekete et al, 2021). But their effectiveness is based on the implicit assumption that the population understands what is expected from them during the alarm (Sorensen, 2000;Linsday, 2011).…”

“…Decision-making becomes complex under stress because it involves cognitive and perception barriers (Becerra et al, 2013;Créton-Cazanave, 2010;Daupras et al, 2015). The interpretation of sounds depends on the knowledge and past experiences of each person, as well as the knowledge of those responsible for deciding to activate the alarm (Cain et al, 2021). In addition, these elements play a key role in the decision time before the reaction time (Colbeau-Justin, 2002;Daupras et al, 2015).…”

“You are here”: Assessing the inclusion of maps in a campus emergency alert system

“…For example, messages could be individualized based on a tiered system (see Schildkraut et al., 2017) of the user's proximity to the threat. Numerous studies including Bopp and Douvinet (2020) and the National Academies (2018) report on emergency alert and warning systems discussed the efficacy and practicality of geo‐targeting, which allows mobile alerts to be sent to at‐risk populations within a specified geographical area. If a similar technology could be developed to include maps in messages sent to students in close proximity to a threat, the impact of the map could potentially be more substantial.…”

“…(2020) report participants who viewed additional guidance accompanying tornado forecast maps resulted in improved message response and increased trust in forecast guidance. Research is needed to determine the most impactful graphical display to communicate the receiver is in an at‐risk location within a text‐based alert system (Bean et al., 2015), along with the public's willingness to use and trust new alert features (Bopp & Douvinet, 2020; van Dijl et al., 2019).…”