Providing warnings and alerts to citizens before an impending disaster in a timely manner is a key objective that is shared by many stakeholders. In this session experts in the area provided an update on the very latest technology and practices that are being used all over the world.

1. Public Warning System for Traveling Citizens

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4. • Public warning to citizens AND tourists is a priority for the country where
incidents happen
• And, for other countries whose CITIZENS are traveling in that country
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9. Why register?
• In a crisis situation such as a natural disaster or severe political instability,
the Foreign Ministry often takes an active role in providing information
and assistance to the country’s citizens in the affected area.
• Additionally, such reach is also used to provide citizen services to citizens
traveling abroad if they need help from the local embassy.
– Travel Warnings are issued to recommend postponing travel to a country because
of ongoing civil unrest, dangerous conditions, terrorist activity, etc.
– Travel Alerts are normally issued for short-term, fast-breaking events that could
pose significant risks to citizens and could affect their travel plans. Examples might
include
 an election season that is likely to have many strikes, demonstrations, or disturbances,
 a health alert like an outbreak of H1N1, or
 evidence of an elevated risk of terrorist attacks.
when these short-term events are over, normally the alerts are canceled.
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10. What happens if there is change in plans?
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What if I don’t register? Do I still get help?

11. Key challenges

12. little knowledgeabout who is distressed
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how to communicate with the people concerned
Languagebarriers for tourists
WHO?
HOW?
WHAT?

13. Key system design inputs
• Find out who is distressed
– Localized information available with roaming sim cards
• Figure out how to communicate with them
– Send text messages or voice calls
• Overcome language barriers
– Communicate in your national language
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14. Example of such a system: TAS
• Localizing and communicating with
national citizens travelling abroad
• Real time overview of the country’s
inhabitants travelling abroad
• Communicate with travellers in one
or several countries
• No need for pre-registration/
subscription
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Defining the scale of actions needed to assist citizens
affected by an emergency in a foreign country or region

15. How does such a system work?
Select
countries
• Identify the
country
/countries where
travellers need
to be alerted
Identify
Travellers
• Check the
number of
travellers in the
selected region
using their
native SIM cards
Define
Contents
• Create and
review the alert/
information
message
Send Alert/
Notification
• Send SMS to all
travellers
identified
Monitor Alert
Status
• Monitor
responses
• Resend if
needed
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16. Usage examples: Arabic Spring
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17. Earthquake in Chile
• February 27th, 2010 Earthquake
• According to data generated by UMS TAS – approx. 1000
Norwegian travellers were in Chile
• Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs used TAS to arrange the
evacuation
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18. Earthquake in Nepal
• April 25th, 2015 Earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8Mw
• Governments tried to communicate with their citizens
– Provide information where assistance could be obtained
– Arrange evacuation
• Norwegian Ministry Foreign Affairs assumed approx. 200 travellers were in
Nepal
• According to data generated by UMS TAS – 600 Norwegian travellers were
in Nepal
– Required evacuation efforts differ significantly
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19. Key challenges: Privacy and confidentiality concerns
• Ease: Citizens should not be required to
register anywhere
• Privacy: Individual locations should not
be shared
• Confidentiality: No confidential data
should leaves the local networks
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20. Learnings & Recommendations
• When a crisis situation occurs, important information often
struggles to reach affected people. Both due to the difficulty
in distinguishing who has been affected and the limited
methods to alerting.
• Ensuring safety of traveling citizens as important as citizens
and tourists in the country
• Individual embassies should work with local authorities to
handle such situations to overcome language barriers for
tourists.
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21. anand@ums.no | +1 305 922 3825