Swiss early warning system for natural hazards

Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP
National Emergency Operations Centre NEOC

Early warning in Switzerland
InfoFlash and NetAlert

Dr. Patrick Smit
Federal Office for Civil Protection

INTERNAL

Content
- Why InfoFlash and NetAlert?
- How does it work?
- Examples
- Conclusion

2

INTERNAL

Why InfoFlash?
- The 26 Swiss cantons (provinces) are by law responsible
for the management of most incidents
- Assistance by the federal government will only be provided if the
resources of the canton(s) are exhausted or are not sufficient enough
to cope with the tasks

The inter-provincial co-ordination during major incidents or disasters
requires an actual overview of the situation in each canton
3

INTERNAL

Why NetAlert?
- The availability of networks and services is vital for all
modern societies
- Even a short breakdown of these networks or services has
immediately widespread consequences for all organizations
responsible for the incident-, emergency- or disaster-management
The analysis of the
actual situation in
- Safety/Security
- Water SWEAT was developed by
the U.S. Army and is used
- Energy by the ACE in civil disasters

- Accessibility
- Telecommunications
is indispensable for the
incident-management. It
relies among other things
on data provided by the
network-operators
4

INTERNAL

How are InfoFlash and NetAlert
being merged ?

All measures of the federal crisis-management board (BST ABCN)
require an actual nation-wide overview of the general situation,
covering both the situation in the cantons and the availability of the
networks/services
5

INTERNAL

Content
- How does it work?
- Examples
- Conclusion

7

INTERNAL

Partnership between network-operators,
provincial and federal offices

8

INTERNAL

Secure dissemination of messages
provided by the competent authorities
Same principle for Success-factors
• Weather-alerts • Fast and timely
• Flood-alerts
• Earthquake-notifications
• As few as needed
• Notifications following • KISS
technical incidents

9

INTERNAL

Event-specific information
provided by the competent authorities

Success-factors
• Up-to-date
• As few as needed
• KISS
10

INTERNAL

Content
- How does it work?
- Examples
- Conclusion

12

INTERNAL

“Blackout Switzerland II” (1.7. & 19./20.11.2009)
InfoFlash-messages provided by the PEOC’s
13h00 14h00
H + 1h H + 2h

15h00 16h00
H + 3h H + 4h

13

INTERNAL

NetAlert-messages provided by swissgrid
12h00 13h00
H H + 1h

15h00 17h00
H + 3h H + 5h

14

INTERNAL

NetAlert-messages provided by the SFR
06h15 13h15
H - 6h H + 1h

15h15 17h15
H + 3h H + 5h

15

INTERNAL

“SEISMO 12” (8.-10.5.2012)
Simulation of a 6.6 Mw earthquake in Basel

Impact
Casualties: ~ 60‘000 = 01 % of the affected population
Damaged buildings: ~ 750‘000 = 50 % of all buildings in the area
Total cost:Office for Civil Protection FOCP ~ 140 bn sFr = 23 % of GNP of Switzerland
Federal
16
Duvernay et al. (2011)

INTERNAL

“SEISMO 12” (8.-10.5.2012)
Notification of the Swiss Seismological Service

EXERCISE - Automatic Earthquake Notification as of 08.05.2012 07:32 - EXERCISE
******************************************************************************
Sender Swiss Seismological Service
Event Earthquake
Date and time 8.5.2012 07:30 LOC
Focal depth 10 km
Magnitude 6.6
Epicentre 47.47 ° lat. / 7.60 ° long.
[CH 57.7 / 612.15]
Epicentral region Basel / Switzerland
Affected provinces FR, AR, OW, ZG, GR, AI, GE, TI, SZ, SG, VD, VS, NW,
BL, TG, AG, JU, ZH, NE, GL, FL, LU, UR, SH, SO, BE, BS
Distances Vaduz 150 km East
Chur 162 km Southeast
<epicentral-distances to provincial cities deleted>
Geneva 179 km Southwest
Additional information <text for emergency broadcast notification deleted>
=======================================================
Common information-platforms These parameters were automatically estimated
and have not yet been verified by a seismologist
• Electronic situations display ========================================================
Hotline Tel. xxx xxx xx xx or E-Mail xxx-xxx@xxx.xxx.ethz.ch
for the emergency operations centres Authorities only
*** END OF MESSAGE / National Emergency Operations Centre https://lage.naz.ch ***
• Common natural hazard platform ch.naz.dispatch.formatter.VulpusRenderImpl at Tue May 8 07:34:23 CET 2012
for the natural hazard experts
17

INTERNAL

“SEISMO 12” (8.-10.5.2012)
InfoFlash-messages provided by the PEOC’s
06h30 09h30
H - 1h H + 2h

10h30 11h30
H + 3h H + 4h

18

INTERNAL

Content
- How does it work?
- Examples
- Conclusion

21

INTERNAL

Conclusion
- Information provided by the emergency operations centres of the cantons
and the network-management centres are essential for all stakeholders
dealing with the aftermath of a major incident or disaster
- The domino-effect, which is typical for major incidents or disasters,
results in a large number of InfoFlash- and NetAlert-messages
especially during the beginning of an unfolding event
- Standard operating procedures and common message protocols hugely
facilitate the notification process for both the sender and the recipients
- There are no binding laws or regulations for InfoFlash and NetAlert.
Hence the collaboration between the stakeholders is based on
mutual understanding and trust
- InfoFlash and NetAlert are accepted as event-based notification-process
between the network-operators and government offices alike
- Weekly or monthly tests of the process are mission-critical
since major incidents or disasters are (luckily) rare events
22

INTERNAL

Conclusion in a nutshell

Plan the unthinkable

Think cross-linked Act systematically
24

Swiss early warning system for natural hazards

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