The document outlines emergency communication practices, emphasizing risk assessment, early warning systems, and incident management. It discusses the importance of telecommunications resilience and integration of various communication methods to facilitate effective disaster response and preparedness. Key components include risk mapping, alerting and reporting systems, and the interplay between physical hazards and communication technologies.

1. Overview of Emergency Communication Practices,
Methods and Expected Outcomes
Nuwan Waidyanatha
ITU Expert
Email: nuwan [AT] lirneasia [DOT] net
http://www.lirneasia.net/profiles/nuwan-waidyanatha
Mobile: +94773710394 (Int'l Roaming) +8613888446352 (cn)
Workshop on Timor-Leste Emergency Communications Plan
2015 April 27
National Communications Authority of Timor-Leste, Dili, Timor-Leste

2. Outline
❑ Introduction
❑ Risk mapping
❑ Early Warning
❑ Incident
Management
❑ Telecommunications
resilience and
availability

3. Typical vertical horizontal integration
Railway Financial
Civil
affairs … …… …
National
Provincial/Regional
State/Regional
County/Town/Village
Land Earthquake Water Heath
Firefighting Meteorological Traffic
Diploma
tic
“Horizontal”
Inf. Sharing
“Vertical”
A variety of
means to
public
1122
33
Management platformManagement platform
Collecti
on
Collecti
on
WebsiteWebsite
Feedback evaluation
system
Feedback evaluation
system
SMS release
system
SMS release
systemProcessProcess
Transm
ission
Transm
ission
StoreStore ControlControl
National
Emergency
Early Warning
& Alerting
System

4. If you were to manage emergencies manually
❑ Channels N(N-1)/2 = O(N2
)
❑ Information Lost in relay and propagation
❑ Redundant Data Collection
❑ Inconsistent Terminology
❑ Manual Collation / Calculation
❑ Delayed Situational-Awareness
N=5
N=8
N=16

5. Full Scope of Multi Agency Situational Awareness
scope
architecture
keep it Simple
functions
ALERTING
(CAP)
REPORTING
(SITREP)
Common Operating Picture

6. Components for Em. Comm. & Resilience
1. Critical infrastructure risk assessment
2. Alerting/Warning for situational-awareness
3. Situational Reporting for Emergency
Coordination
4. Telecommunications resilience and
availability

7. Defining Hazard, Vulnerability and Risk
Potential
Hazard
High Exposure Low Exposure
Elements-at-Risk
High Vulnerability
(No Reinforcement)
Low Vulnerability
(Reinforced Structure)
Risk = Hazard & Exposure x Vulnerability x Cost

8. Spatial Representation of Risk
Risk = Hazard x Physical Vulnerability x Cost/Quantity
Type of hazard
Intensity
Duration
Spatial Extent
Type of
elements at risk
Numbers
Economic value
Location
Flood Depth or
Intensity
Vulnerability Elements-at-riskHazard
5 1025 1005 1025 100
Overlay of hazard &
element at risk
Exposure
(Probability of occurrence) (Degree of losses to elements at risk) (Quantification of exposed elements)
Modeling + GIS RS + GIS
Field Data

9. Framework for Disaster Risk Assessment and Disaster
Management
Hazard
Inventory
Triggering Factors Elements at RiskEnvironmental Factors
Geology
Soil
Land-use
Topography
Hydrology
Rainfall
Volcanic Eruption
Earthquake
Landslide
Flood
Drought
Cyclone
Earthquake
Buildings
Infrastructures
Population
Critical Facilities
Lifelines
Spatio-Temporal Probability
Risk = Hazard x Vulnerability
Quantitative Risk Assessment (Absolute Risk)
Socio-Economic Factors
Livelihoods
Literacy
Gender
Poverty
Culture
Qualitative Risk Assessment (Relative Risk)
Damage-intensity Relationships
Disaster Management
Disaster PreparednessDisaster Mitigation (Risk Management) Disaster Response Disaster Recovery

10. Sahana Center of Excellence at AIT Geoinformatics
 Sahana CEO @ AIT is a program
complementing Sentinel:
https://sentinel.tksc.jaxa.jp/sentinel2/MB_H
TML/About/About.htm
 You can request for technical assistance
from if you haven't already
 Continue offering, primarily Asia and the
Pacific with preparedness and response
solutions/services for building resilient
communities

11. Components for Em. Comm. & Resilience
1. Critical infrastructure risk assessment
2. Alerting/Warning for situational-awareness
3. Situational Reporting for Emergency
Coordination
4. Telecommunications resilience and
availability

12. Warnings and Telecom
ICTs enable the linking of physical world within which hazards occur and symbolic world of
the human likely to be harmed by those hazards, so that they may take life saving action.
But the effective linking of these worlds requires not only ICTs, but also the existence of
institutions that allow for the effective mobilization of their potential
(Samarjiva: mobilizing ICTs for disaster warning, 2005)
Physical world where
hazards occur
Symbolic world
where action
originates
TV, Radio &
Cell
broadcasts
Mediated
interperson
al
Warnings (telecom)
Warnings (telecom)
The physical, the symbolic & their linking through ICTs, simplified
More time to run; more lives saved

13. Alerting/Warning Standard (EDXL-CAP)
ITU-T X.1303
Recommendation

14. All-Hazards All-media
TV SCROLLERSWEB ADSSPECIAL DEVICES
u
CAP

15. Alert Area Templates for Targeted Warning
1. Identify Risk (e.g
Landslide)
2.Define targeted
Alert area as a GIS
Polygon
3. Assess whether
the technology (e.g.
cell towers) would
cover the targeted
area
Make the data available to the community and let them
develop their own resilience plans

16. Telecom CDR (Big Data) Migration Patterns

17. Example of Open Signal data for TL

18. Components for Em. Comm. & Resilience
1. Critical infrastructure risk assessment
2. Alerting/Warning for situational-awareness
3. Situational Reporting for Emergency
Coordination
4. Telecommunications resilience and
availability

19. Situational Reporting
1.Victim calls or other calls
a hot-line
2.Filed observation (or
casualty-illness report
recorded
3.Situational-information is
processed
4.Response resources are
determined and deployed

20. Situational-Reporting (EDXL-SITREP)
1) SitRep: root element with qualifying
elements
2) iReport: the type of report
•
Field Observation: report sent by
CERT members identifying incidents
•
Situation Information: additional
information for comprehensive
information
•
Response Resources: derived
resources to deploy
•
Casualty/Illness Summary: injury
and health related information
•
Management Summary: periodic
summary of overall picture

21. Components for Em. Comm. & Resilience
1. Critical infrastructure risk assessment
2. Alerting/Warning for situational-awareness
3. Situational Reporting for Emergency
Coordination
4. Telecommunications resilience and
availability

22. Telecommunications Availability with RASTA
Early Warning Networks
Stakeholders: ISRO, ...
Incident management:
Stakeholders POLNET, NKN,
RailNet
Participatory approach to evaluating telecoms and vulnerabilityes

23. Resilience of ICT infrastructure
Infrastructure Vulnerable to
------------------ ------------------
Submarine cables Earthquakes
Fibre optics Earthquakes, infrastructure
Microwave Cyclones, Wildfire, power
HF/VHF Sever weather
Satellite 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

24. Optimizing the use of available networks
1) Understand the Coverings
2) Limit to the perfect Matchings
3) Optimize the objective subject to constraints (LP problem)

25. Hazards, Information, and Technology
Conduct a
Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA)
Identify the most
versatile technologies

26. Steps to take and Recommendation we will make
1. Critical infrastructure risk assessment
2. Alerting/Warning for situational-awareness
3. Situational Reporting for Emergency
Coordination
4. Telecommunications resilience and
availability

27. Thank You
Nuwan Waidyanatha
Nuwan [AT] lirneasia [DOT] net