Effective use of telecom

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Effective use of telecom electronic media in
disaster-risk reduction

• Rohan Samarajiva
• Presentation at meeting convened by Ministry of
  Disaster Management Human Rights
• 7 September 2007, Colombo

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Agenda

• Disaster cycle and the role of ICTs
• Central role of government
• Complementary roles of community-based
  organizations and private sector
• Lessons from the HazInfo Last-Mile research
  project for effective communication to government
  first responders (including media telcos)
• The community-centered model and the
  citizen-centered model
• Research results in summary and conclusions
• Public warning
• Radio and TV
• Cell broadcasts

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The disaster cycle
Key role for telecom electronic media
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Physical and symbolic worlds, absent linking
technologies
Mediated interpersonal
Physical world where hazards occur
Symbolic world where action originates
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The physical, the symbolic their linking
through ICTs, simplified
Physical world where hazards occur
Warnings (telecom)
Mediated interpersonal
TV, Radio Cell broadcasts
Symbolic world where action originates
Warnings (telecom)
More time to run more lives saved
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Telecom and e-media are important, but are only
part of the solution

• Ability to move information at the speed of light
  can increase time to act to reduce risks of
  disasters
• Many organizational problems must be solved
• At level of community
• At level of first responders
• At national early warning center
• Among the carriers of alerts and warnings
• Effective warning must be complemented by
  preparedness plans, evacuation capabilities, etc.
  
• If we are to save livelihoods and property, in
  addition to lives, a lot more has to be done on
  risk reduction

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Early warning who should do what?

• Early warning is a classic public good ?
  Government must supply
• Early warning is based on incomplete,
  probabilistic information and judgment ?
  Government must take the responsibility of
  issuing warning/alert
• 75 of tsunami warnings in the Pacific are false
  false warnings can be dangerous
• Government gets hazard information from external
  sources or internal sources
• Judgment must be applied before national
  warnings/alerts are issued

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Early warning who should do what?

• Operators of telecom networks and electronic
  media (public-sector and private-sector) must
  transmit the message to first responders and
  citizens
• Ground-level first responders must play the key
  role in evacuations and response
• Community preparedness is important if warnings
  are to save lives ? community-based organizations
  (e.g., Sarvodaya) are best at this
• Includes improving the ability of communities to
  receive warnings and alerts

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Early warning chain (standard form)
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Early warning chain (community based applicable
to Last-Mile HazInfo project)
Emergency Response Plan coordinator
Media Govt 1st Responders
From domestic international sources
SCDMC will never issue warnings only alerts so
that communities can be better prepared to
receive the warning from government
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Pilot project, Jan 2006-Dec 2007 Research
questions

• What technologies are best for reaching
  communities?
• What emergency response plans are best for saving
  lives of villagers?
• How important is training?
• How significant is the level of organization in
  the village?
• How does the intervention affect women?
• Will the ICTs be integrated into everyday life?

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Pilot project almost completed

• Train-the trainer program of 7 days in April 2006
• Live tests in 2007
• Coordinated with regional government authorities
• Now in analysis and dissemination phase
• Dissemination event in March 2007
• Project Manager invited to speak at African
  region event in Alexandria, Egypt, April 2007
• More coming . . . Including session at Global
  Knowledge 3 conference in Kuala Lumpur, December
  2007

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Lessons for communication to first responders
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Results relevant to governments communications
with its first responders

• What technologies are best for reaching
  communities?
• What emergency response plans are best for saving
  lives of villagers?
• How important is training?
• How significant is the level of organization in
  the village?
• How does the intervention affect women?
• Will the ICTs be integrated into everyday life?

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Pilot project design 32 villages 5 technologies
With ERP Training With ERP Training With ERP Training With ERP Training No ERP Training No ERP Training No ERP Training No ERP Training
Sarvodaya Stage 1, 2, 3 VSAT Urawatha (Galle) MoP Nidavur (Batticalo) FxP Thirukadalar (Trincomalee) AREA Moratuwella (Colombo) MoP Meddhawatha (Matara) MoP Thambiluvil (Kalmunai) FxP Oluville (Kalmunai) AREA Maggona (Kalutara)
Sarvodaya Stage 1, 2, 3 AREA RAD Modarapallassa (Hambantota) AREA FxP Wattegama North (Matara) AREA MoP Palmunnai (Batticalo) Control Village Abeyasinghepura (Ampara) AREA RAD Thondamanar (Jaffna) AREA FxP Karathivu (Kalmunai) AREA MoP Munnai (Jaffna) Control Village Modara (Colombo)
Sarvodaya Stage 4 VSAT Modaragama (Hambantota) MoP Diyalagoda (Kalutara) FxP Periyakallar (Batticalo) AREA Panama North (Ampara) MoP Satur-kondagnya (Batticallo) MoP Samodhagama (Hambantota) FxP Indivinna (Galle) AREA Brahamana-wattha (Galle)
Sarvodaya Stage 4 AREA RAD Kalmunai II (Kalmunai) AREA FxP Samudragama (Trincomalee AREA MoP Valhengoda (Galle) Control Village Mirissa South (Matara) AREA RAD Venamulla (Galle) AREA FxP Kottegoda (Matara) AREA MoP Thallala South (Matara) Control Village Thalpitiya (Kalutara)
AREA Addressable Radio for Emergency Alerts,
Class B configuration of WorldSpace System MoP
Java enabled Mobile Phone, Dialog-MicroImage
innovation MiDews application RAD Remote Alarm
Device, Dialog-University-of-Moratuwa, MicroImage
Innovation FxP CDMA Wireless Fixed Phones with
1xRTT functions, Sri Lanka Telecom VSAT Very
Small Aperture Terminals coupled with Internet
Public Alerting System Innovative-Tech Solana
Networks
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ICTs used in reaching communities
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LM-HWS Components and their functions

• Staff at the HIH monitor hazard events
  around-the-clock
• When an Event of Interest is detected, HIH
  follows a protocol that may result in the
  issuance of a message to ICT Guardians over
  multiple modes
• ICT-Gs receive messages and acknowledge receipt
• If urgent or high-priority alerts, ICT-Gs notify
  local ERP-Coordinators in the community using
  locally agreed on methods
• In real cases, ICT-Gs and ERP-Cs will await
  official warnings
• In live tests, ERP-Cs activated local ERP and
  were timed

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Performance Evaluation of the Elements
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The scenario is based on the Panama (Ampara
District) simulation data
Tsunami Event occurred at 1015am and will impact
at 1145
External source issued email bulletin at 1025am
HIH Monitor receives email at 1035am
HIH Monitor issues CAP alert at 1046am
ICT Guardian receives CAP alert over AREA-B at
1102am
ERP Coordinator receives alert information at
1108am
Community completes evacuation at 1108am
Calculate the Reliability of HIH Monitor
activities
Assumption since this is the first set of trials
and the LM-HWS has no data to calculate an
expected time we set
(i.e. best case scenario)?
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Effectiveness of ICT terminals

• Measured as a function of a set of 11 discrete
  parameters
• Language diversity
• Full CAP capability
• Audio and text medium availability
• Bi-directionality
• Total cost of ownership
• DC power consumption
• Daily utilization
• Acknowledgment of message receipt
• Active alerting functionality (wakeup)
• Weight of wireless ICT (portability)
• Signal coverage
• A score between 0 and 1 is given for each
  parameter

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• Benchmark
• 95 Reliability Effectiveness

• Current Performance
• Reliability 78
• Effectiveness 83

• Recommendations
• Improve acknowledgement of alert
• Develop a single-input, multiple-output software
  application to speed relaying of alert via
  multiple ICTs i.e., P2P Multilanguage CAP
  Broker

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NA
NA
NA Not Applicable
Recommendation Consider deployment of multiple
devices for complementary redundancy ? higher
reliability and effectiveness
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Preliminary conclusions for communicating with
first responders

• Community-based approach and first responder
  communication (as opposed to direct-to-citizen
  approach) requires
• Bidirectionality of media, for local reporting
  and acknowledgement ? No stand-alone AREA sets
• CAP compliance and ability to send long messages
  in multiple languages ? AREA sets in combination
  with other media
• Mobile has potential, after software problems
  solved, but script limitations make it an
  also-ran for community-based approach and for
  first-responder communication
• Though very useful as backup and complementary
  device

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Public warning
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Key components

• National Early Warning Center ? media and telecom
  operators
• Including verification and safeguards
• Media and telecom operators ? citizens
• At home
• At work
• En route
• Etc.
• Instead, focus on most difficult cases
• Citizen in train
• Citizen at Yala beach
• Others will be automatically solved
• Citizen ? EWC

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Early Warning Center ? Media Telcos

• Protocols for fast decision making re issuance of
  warnings/alerts Internal to government
• Procedure for issuing large number of
  warnings/alerts quickly and reliably using
  multiple media, including acknowledgements and
  redundancy Decision is governments but best to
  use Common Alerting Protocol based single-input,
  multi-output, multi-language software solution

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Solution

• Filling in of standard template that includes
  automatic translation based on look up of
  dictionaries
• Single button transmission in multiple media and
  multiple languages
• Achievable in a few months
• Need to develop internal protocols
• CAP broker software
• Equipment at media newsrooms and telco operations
  rooms
• Procedures for verification that does not involve
  a one-on-one phone call
• Sarvodaya HIH can be used as a test bed

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Scale of the problem

• Imagine sequentially dialing and giving the
  message to
• Television channels (7?)
• Radio channels (10?)
• Telecom operators (8)
• If each call takes 3 minutes, need 75 minutes for
  the whole set
• 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami reached Komari/Arugam
  Bay coastline within 90 mts of earthquake
• Detection-monitoring people require 15 mts
  minimum to issue a warning, so all we have in 75
  mts
• Faster we get the message out, more time for
  people to respondCitizen in train No radio some
  mobiles

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Solution

• Robust communication with train guard and driver
• Consider them first responders
• Not part of citizen-warning problem
• Cell broadcasts
• Immune to congestion
• Reaches all phones within a base-station coverage
  area
• No numbers required
• More information
• http//www.ceasa-int.org/library/
• Mark Wood had meetings with operators in 2006
• Dr Dileeka Dias agreed to serve as Sri Lanka
  liaison with CEASACitizen at Yala Beach No
  radio some mobiles maybe coverage

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Solution

• No coverage
• No solution
• Has coverage
• Cell broadcast

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What is required for use of cell broadcast for
public warning?

• Technical committees constituted by DMC, Met,
  TRC, tel operators, invited experts (software and
  emergency response), for
• Truncated CAP message formats
• Handset specifications
• Language requirements
• Regional targeting
• Legal safeguards
• Trials
• Publicity, etc.
• How long?
• Trials possible by 26 December 2007

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Citizen ? Early Warning Center

• EWC is a professionally operated 24/7
  organization
• Need to focus on their urgent tasks
• Cannot be distracted by phone calls
• Suggest mobilizing 1919 Government Information
  Center to handle citizen inquiries
• Cut-over procedures
• How to transfer information to respond with
• Publicity

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