Doug Allport

1
Proposed National Public Alert Message Protocol
Requirements April 11, 2006

• Doug Allport
• President
• Allport Group Inc., Ottawa, ON
• Doug_at_AllportGroup.com
• [phone]

Ernie MacGillivray Director, Emergency Measures
Organization Province of New Brunswick Ernest.MacG
illivray_at_GNB.ca [phone]
2
Agenda

• New Brunswick Public Alerts - Ernie
• Protocol Conclusions - Ernie
• Specific Requirements - Doug

3
New Brunswick Public Alerts

• New Brunswick EMO creates public alerts and
  notices for
• Events of a provincial nature
• Events of a municipal nature
• For areas where there is no municipal government
• On behalf of municipal governments
• Events with a wide range of urgency
• Urgent priority events (CANALERT)
• High priority events (non-CANALERT)
• Low Priority Events (non-CANALERT)

4
New Brunswick Public Alerts contd

• Communications New Brunswick issues alerts and
  notices to media for all departments of the
  government, including
• Emergency Measures
• Health
• Transportation
• Education
• Special arrangements with NB-EMO have been made
  for
• Specific events
• Ex. NB Power Point Lepreau Nuclear Power
  Generation
• Special projects
• Ex. EMnet/Weather Network/Acadia Broadcasting

5
New Brunswick Public Alerts contd

• Communications NB is an information / alert
  service bureau to NB citizens
• Alert data from province and municipalities
  delivered through web services, media
• Service NB has created self-subscription service
• Alert data to be delivered by email, voice
  messages, telephony messaging devices, SMS

6
NB EMO/CNB Requirements

• One method for issuing all levels of alerts
• One method for receiving all levels of alerts
• For areas within, and around its borders
• One set of business rules

7
NBs Communications Partners Want

• One method for receiving alerts
• All levels of urgency
• From all their sources
• Federal
• Provincial (NB and neighbors their signals serve)
• Municipal
• Private companies and organizations
• One set of business rules

8
New Brunswick Conclusions

• One protocol is required to issue all alerts
• All urgencies
• To all distribution methods
• The protocol must support conversion to other
  alert protocols, including
• SAME for weather radio
• Pelmorex proprietary for All Channel Alerting
• Telcordia for Allport Method
• SMTP for email
• SMS

9
Conclusions contd

• Protocol must support
• Managed issuing rights
• By event type, location, and severity
• Broadcaster decisions regarding what is broadcast
  and when
• By event type, location, and severity
• Individual decisions regarding what is received
• By event type, location, and severity
• Special needs applications
• Automated composition of standard messages

10
Conclusions contd

• The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is the
  protocol best suited to these needs
• To meet our needs, CAP requires
• More required elements
• Elements specified in a Canadian context
• Canadian business rules

11

• Specific Requirements

12
Key Challenges Issues

• Location identification
• Event identification
• Limitation
• Required Fields
• Standard Message Format
• CAB Recommendation

13
Location Identification

• Definable ltareagt is required
• Necessary for automated broadcast applications
• Is message applicable to audience?
• Necessary for rights management
• Is issuer authorized to issue alert for area
  specified?
• Necessary for subscription services
• Does alert apply to area(s) of interest? Current
  location?
• Supports mapping of every alert

14
Location Identification contd

• Nationally recognized ltgeocodegt required element
• Codes match geopolitical areas. Ex. County, town,
  reserve, etc.
• Ensures commonly used location term used in every
  message
• Ensures general location can be identified on
  readily available maps
• Serves as managed rights parameter
• GIS is optional
• Most communications systems need not support GIS
• Does not preclude use of
• GIS point files for ltgeocodegt values
• More specifically defined areas, using
• GIS
• Postal codes
• Locally defined location codes. Ex. Sarnia, North
  Vancouver

15
Location Identification contd

• Complete/partial ltgeocodegt indicator
• If less than entire area, should be supported
  with
• GIS data
• More descriptive copy
• An area of Saint John County known as Saint
  John River Flood Plain
• An area of Ottawa known as The Byward Market,
  downtown Ottawa
• An area of Sarnia, Lambton County known as two
  kilometers east, northeast of XYZ Chemicals,
  located at intersection of Industrial Road and
  County Road 25

16
Standard Geographical Classification (SGC)

• Managed by Statistics Canada
• Developed with, and used by, all levels of
  government
• Nationally recognized governance
• Codes available for every recognized government
• 288 regions/districts/counties
• 5600 municipalities, reservations, etc.
• GIS files and population data for each code
• Code levels build on one another
• Systems need only monitor to level of granularity
  they serve
• Environment Canada weather reporting areas near
  match in many areas

17
SGC contd
NB Census Division (CD) - 15
NB Census Sub-Division (CSD) - 275
18
SGC contd
EC Weather Reporting Areas
NB Counties
19
SGC Issues

• Some CSD are very large in area, and populations
• Ex. Ottawa, Toronto
• Some duplication between levels as a result of
  amalgamations
• Ex. Ottawa and Toronto are both CD and CSD
• Do not cover marine areas
• Polygons for islands included in GIS files
• Currently only in one language, as provided by
  provinces
• Need both text and audio in both languages
• GIS data for CSD is not free CD data is

20
Event Identification

• Alert must include recognized event (code)
• Supports common terminology
• Supports subscription services
• Supports managed rights
• Only police can issue child abduction alerts
• Only EC can issue weather alerts
• Supports translation to other languages

21
Event Identification contd

• Two tiers of events where practical
• Generic national level, which supports regional
  diversity
• Ex. Wind Alerts include Wreckhouse Winds, Les
  Suites Winds
• Supports general and specific interests
• Ex. Hazardous Materials Air, Water
• Automatic shut down of water intakes, air
  ventilation systems
• Ex. Criminal Activity Alerts Home, Retail,
  Vehicles
• May be supported with ltparametergt
• Ex. Transit route numbers, school bus
  cancellations, specific foods for allergy alerts,
  etc.

22
Event Identification contd

• No actions included
• Ex. Evacuate and Shelter in Place used in US EAS
• CAP provides ltresponseTypegt evacuate, prepare,
  monitor, etc.
• No severity rating terms
• Severity handled by lturgencygt ltseveritygt and
  ltcertaintygt
• If warning, watch, and advisory terms are to be
  used, they should relate universally to all alert
  types, using existing values
• Ex. Warning used if lturgencygt is immediate and
  ltcertaintygt is observed or likely

23
Limitation

• One ltinfogt block per ltalertgt
• Being imposed by major stakeholders
• Expect will become standard
• One to one relationship between message, unique
  identifier, cancel, updates, etc.

24
Additional Required Elements

• ltlanguagegt
• One language per each ltalertgt
• Consistent with one ltinfogt block
• Consistent with broadcast delivery of unilingual
  messages
• All data supplied in English or French
• For other languages, message translation may be
  derived from
• Event codes
• Location codes
• Values for severity, certainty, urgency

25
Additional Required Elements contd

• ltexpiresgt
• Required in support of other alert protocols
• Ex. SAME, Telcordia
• Automated applications must know duration
• Ex. Automated broadcast application repeats every
  X minutes for duration

26
Standard Message Format

• Defined for all scenarios
• Ex. If ltresponseTypegt field has a value or not
• Standardizes content presentation to the benefit
  of all
• Education, training, cross department approvals,
  etc.
• Allows for automated message creation
• Reduces time to issue warning
• Reduces human errors
• Allows for text to speech applications
• Removes fear of public speaking from decision to
  issue
• Removes fear of using second language from
  decision to issue

27
Standard Message contd

• Example
• A lteventgt alert has been issued for ltareaDescgt
  by ltsenderNamegt. Persons in this area are
  encouraged to ltresponseTypegt, and ltinstructiongt
  (if fields . This event is rated as ltseveritygt,
  and is ltcertaintygt. Responsive action should be
  taken (text associated with lturgencygt value). For
  more information about this event, visit ltURIgt or
  call (telephone number).

28
CAB Recommendation

• Canadian Association of Broadcasters /
  Environment Canada weather warning protocols
• Code 1 Urgent Priority Severe Weather Warning
• Air immediately
• Code 2 High Priority Weather Watch
• Air immediately or at next program break
• Code 3 Low Priority Weather Advisory
• Air on next weathercast
• Challenge
• How to do for all hazards?

29
CAB Recommendation contd

• - CAB values relate to CAP values
• Code 1 (CANALERT), air immediately, equal to
• lturgencygt of Immediate
• ltseveritygt of Extreme or Severe threat to
  life or property
• ltcertaintygt of Observed or Likely
• Code 2, air immediately or at the next program
  break, equal to
• lturgencygt of Expected
• ltseveritygt of Extreme or Severe
• ltcertaintygt of Observed or Likely
• Code 3, air at next weathercast/newsbreak, equal
  to
• lturgencygt of Future
• ltseveritygt of Extreme or Severe
• ltcertaintygt of Observed or Likely

30
Proposed National Public Alert Message Protocol
Requirements April 11, 2006

• Doug Allport
• President
• Allport Group Inc., Ottawa, ON
• Doug_at_AllportGroup.com
• [phone]

Ernie MacGillivray Director, Emergency Measures
Organization Province of New Brunswick Ernest.MacG
illivray_at_GNB.ca [phone]