Considerations for Developing a Resilient Emergency Communication System

Nuwan WaidyanathaSenior Research Fellow, LIRNEasia

Email: nuwan [AT] lirneasia [DOT] net

http://www.lirneasia.net/profiles/nuwan-waidyanathaMobile: +8613888446352 (cn) +94773710394 (lk)

ITU Asia-Pacific Center of Excellences Training on ICT Applications on Mitigating Natural Disaster

2013 November 28

Crowne Plaza, Hanoi, Vietnam

□LIRNEasia Overview

□Focus on Emergency Communication

□Resilience of Emergency Communication Systems

□Action research findings: key considerations■ Bridging the last-mile■ Public health mitigation■ Voice-enabled ICTs for CERTs■ Pictographs to aid lingustically challenged

Outline

Regional ICT Policy Think Tank

Our Work in Disasters

Risk Reduction

Recovery

Mitigation

Prevention

PreparednessResponse

Hazardous event Warning

mitigation, prevention and preparedness are pre-disaster activities that

constitute actions to be taken to limit the impact of

a disaster

Resilience of Emergency Communication Systems

Towards a Multi-agency All-hazards All-media Situational-Awareness and Response

1. Understand the Natural & Industrial hazard risk profile (e.g. Mongolia)

Number of Occurrences(past 10 years)

EconomicLosses(past 10 years)

Number of PeopleAffected(past 10 years)

2. Determine the emergency ICT system:(a) State of the plans, policies, and procedures(b) Clarity of EM stakeholder roles and responsibilities(c) Implementation of multi-agency situational-awareness(d) Gaps in communications and business continuity plans(e) Readiness on all-hazards all-media communication

3. Monitor and evaluate through:(a) Silent-test (b) Table-top exercises (c) Controlled-exercises

Resilience of ICT infrastructure

Infrastructure Vulnerable to------------------ ------------------Submarine cables EarthquakesFibre optics Earthquakes, infrastructureMicrowave Cyclones, Wildfire, powerHF/VHF Sever weatherSatellite Solar flairs, space debris

ICT infrastructure ecosystem - is located in physical space- it is powered by energy sources- it is operated by people

Backhaul networks[issue] :: wired & wireless public networks depend on domestic and international backhaul networks for effective functioning[remedy] :: Competitive market approach to redundancy and business continuity (i.e. liberalized environments, multiple suppliers and technologies)

Congestion[issue] :: consequences of congestion for first responders are extremely serious. [remedy] :: is subscriptions to TETRA networks which are not interconnected to public networks

Bridging the last-mile for warning households

ERP-C(n,m)

ERP-C(n,2)

ERP-C(n,1)

National Early Warning Center

Hazard Information

HubDomestic & International

Sources

ICT

-G(n

)

CO

MM

UN

ITY

(n)

ICT Networks

Sarvodaya Hazard Information Hub

(HIH) Communications Providers

Sarvodaya Communities

Addressable Satellite Radio(AREA)

RemoteAlarmDevice (RAD)

Very SmallApertureTerminalIP alerting

Java enabledMobile phone(MOP)

CDMAPhone(FXP)

Communicating health risks with Healthcare Workers

Sensor

Detection

Decision

Physical World

Broker

Response

Health Providers,Relief Workers

Observe Relevant Data

RTBPm-HealthSurvey

Record and Transmit Data GSMphone

network

RTBPServer and Database

Store Data

RTBPInteractive

Visualization, Analysis and

Event Detection Software

Monitor Data

AffectedPopulation

Automated Alerts

Interactive Analytics

Internet, GSM

network

Internet

Analysts, Health Officials,Epidemiologists, Decision Makers

Manage Relief Effort

Survey responses from 28 health workers from June 2009 to March 2010 Survey responses from 15 health workers from June 2009 to March 2010

No formal Government procedure for sharing health risk information with health workers

At present health workers learn of adverse health events through MEDIA and WORD-OF-MOUTH, in some cases from PEERS

Voice-enabled ICTs for Situational-Reporting

2010

51.84%

Telephony voice quality affecting operating procedures

Pictographs to support Linguistically Challenged

1. Symbols would serve the: a) Illiterate and people with other disabilities b) Overseas travelers and Expatriates illiterate in the local language(s)2. Reduces the a) need to message in too many languages b) load on the networks during a crisis

~30% avg in South/West Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are illiterate

~ 10% avg improvement in the last 20 yearsSource UNESCO: http://tinyurl.com/bwj3stl

~ 955,000 million/year international tourism departures 2008-2012

~ 1.6 billion/year foretasted for 2020Source World Bank: http://tinyurl.com/bwj3stl

Most countries speak more than one language

Many of them with over 50 languagesSource Ethnologue world languages: http://tinyurl.com/csfg45v

Mobile pictograph alerting

Library of symbols to consider

UNOCHA Noun Project (not defined for alerting) :http //thenounproject.com/collections/ocha-humanitarian-icons/:

Homeland Security Working Group (USA) – adopts from http //symbolstore.org/: :http //www.fgdc.gov/HSWG/ref pages/SymbologyBackground ref.htm: _ _

h

UNOCHA Reliefweb, World Humanitarian and Country Icons :http //reliefweb.int/map/world/world-humanitarian-and-country-icons-2012:

Emergency Mapping Symbols (Canada) : http //emsymbology.org/index.html:

Spot-On & Yazmi “STRIX” + “ASSET” satellite-enabled addressable + broadcast solution

Aligned with ITU's SMART SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT MODEL

School solution with synchronous and asynchronous content delivery

Can be adopted for health; e.g. illustrating complex medical procedures

Also available for Warning & Response at the time of need

ISCRAM-Asia 2014 @ IOTX Lanka

www.iscramasia2014.orgwww.iotxconvention.org

Thank You

Nuwan WaidyanathaNuwan [AT] lirneasia [DOT] net