Europe is a reality made of 27
countries and a common emergency number (112), where you can communicate any emergency situation everywhere within the European territory, despite the fact
that 23 different official languages are spoken. Each country has its own
emergency system and, up to day, there isn’t an harmonised approach
to alert the population in Europe.
“The Alert4All goal
is to improve the effectiveness of public alert and communication during crisis
situations in European member States. This implies that Alert4All intends to
reduce the impact of disasters (in terms of losses to health and life, as well
as economic impact), by informing efficiently and on time the population at
risk”, explains Cristina Párraga, Alert4All project manager.
“On the one side, this
means that Alert4All is directed to the civil protection officials that shall
inform the population, but also, and more importantly, to the European citizens
that shall benefit ultimately from improvements in public alert systems”, adds
Párraga.
You can also watch an interview in Spnish with Cristina Párraga here.
Relevant improvements in public alert using different
technologies
Alert4All “improves communication features, cooperation between authorities and situation
awareness. On the communication features’ side, Alert4All allows disseminating
alert messages over many communication technologies directly to the citizens
own devices, such as digital and smart TV, mobile phone and navigation device,
but also over in-building security systems, such as the LED screens in railway
stations, voice evacuation systems in malls, or schools and mass notification
systems, such as public screens.
The recipients’ will received the alerting message in their own language and in text or speech and in a harmonised way, “so that the alert message would look the same way regardless from the official, civil protection office or country from which the alert message is issued. This shall improve the familiarity of citizens with the public alert system and their trust on and understanding of the message.”
Alert4all fosters cooperation among several protection
agencies
“Alert4All provides means for rapid and
efficient information exchange when several civil protection agencies are
involved in the same crisis situation, which in turn improves coordination and
cooperation”, explains Párraga.
Based on Social Media to improve the decision making
process
“Alert4All has
developed a screening of new media tool that observes how the population
understand the situation and, based on this knowledge, to improve the decision
making process. The impact that the crisis situation has on the population is
inferred from the information that people generates on social media (Twitter,
Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and collaborative web sites).”
Sentiment analysis to enhance situational awareness
“The information is analyzed
to extract that are presented to the civil protection officials as sentiment
trends over time, namely how people feel about the crisis and the communicated
alert messages. This implements and indirect feedback channel in public alert
communications, which have been unidirectional up to now. “
Estimating the message’s impact
It is also possible
estimating “if alert messages have been
transmitted to, understood and believed by the relevant people and not only to
technical devices, taking into account not only technical aspects but also
social behaviour of the individuals and crowds“ using an alert impact
simulation tool.
“This alerting effect
simulation is considered by the involved crisis managers to be very useful both
in preparedness planning and for investment decisions about additional channels
for public alert purposes.”
Welcome to this new
platform, as an important step needed to unify the emergency system in Europe.
Don’t you find it necessary?
