Tag Archive for ‘early warning systems’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'early warning systems'

LIRNEasia’s Mobile Benchmarks (South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Broadband Benchmarks Report for October 2008 has been released. Click HERE for more information.

Natasha at UN workshop to link Disaster Management to Space Technology

Chanuka Wattegama

on October 18, 2008

From 13-15 October, 2008, The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with support from the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction – Platform for the Promotion of Early Warning (UNISDR-PPEW) and the United Nations University – Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) organized the Second United Nations International UN-SPIDER Workshop on “Disaster Management and Space Technology – Bridging the Gap” in Bonn, Germany. LIRNEasia researcher, Natasha Udu-gama was one of 134 participants representing 49 countries.

The 3-day UN-SPIDER workshop was notable in that it featured a number of German and international presentations on the themes of Session 1: “Space technology in support of risk and disaster management”, Session 2: “Vulnerability and Risk Assessment”, Session 3: “Contributions of space-based technologies…

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Tags: Bangladesh, Bonn, Early Warning, early warning systems, German Aerospace Center, Germany, Indonesia, Institute for Environment and Human Security, last-mile systems, Mile Hazard, Natasha Udu, Natasha Udu-gama, remote sensing, space-based technologies, telemedicine, United Nations, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, United Nations University.

Maldives: Ideally positioned to lead in cell broadcasting

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 1, 2008

Maldives is a country with an estimated population of 309,575 (August 2008), 312,527 active mobile SIMs, two mobile operators, and complete cellular coverage of all inhabited atolls, including most of the internal ferry and shipping routes (only a little bit in the one and a half degree channel in not covered, and plans are afoot to give coverage there too). It was also the worst affected in terms of property loss in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on a per capita basis. It is also one of the countries most dependent on tourism revenues.

Of all the South Asian countries, it is best positioned to exploit the potential of cell broadcasting both for early warning and for commercial applications. In this light, LIRNEasia was pleased to be invited…

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Tags: cell broadcasting, Dialog Telekom, early warning systems, Harsha Purasinghe, Maldives, Mark Wood, Telecom Authority of the Maldives.

LIRNEasia at 2nd UN-SPIDER workshop, 13 - 15 October, Bonn, Germany

Nirmali Sivapragasam

on September 28, 2008

Natasha Udu-gama has been invited to represent LIRNEasia at the Second International United Nations Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (UN-SPIDER) Bonn Workshop: “Disaster Management and Space Technology - Bridging the Gap” in Bonn, Germany, from the 13th to 15th October 2008.

Natasha will make a presentation on, ‘Last Mile Hazard Information Dissemination’ at a session entitled, ‘Contribution of space-based technologies to existing and proposed Early Warning Systems’. This session will examine how public-private partnerships (PPP) centered on space-based technologies can enable the development, establishment and embedding of early warning systems.

The event is organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), with the aim of providing a platform for brainstorming and in-depth discussion among decision-makers and…

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Tags: Addressable Satellite Radio, Bonn, early warning systems, German Aerospace Center, Germany, HazInfo, Natasha Udu-gama, space technology, United Nations, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, WorldSpace Global Data Solutions.

What are these monkeys doing in our blog?

Chanuka Wattegama

on July 30, 2008

To an ordinary observer the image on left looks like some monkeys but to Nuwan Waidyanatha that is his complex Early Warning System. Monkeys act as sensors and detectors of hazards (aka a leopard) to deer – who would take immediate action for mass evacuation.

Again the image on top right look likes a damper to any engineering student, but to Nuwan that is mass evacuation. The figure below might explain it better with the blue line representing a quick but rough evacuation and the red line a smoother one.

What does this figure has to do with Broadband QoS? If the zero line is assumed to be the accepted level, this explains the change in QoS with the growth of markets. Initially it is the best with…

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Tags: Broadband, early warning systems, Quality of Service.

Are early warning systems gender biased?

Rohan Samarajiva

on October 22, 2007

The article below (issued to mark International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, 11 days late) says that the manner in which warning are communicated “typically disadvantage women.” The “evidence” or illustration used to support this broad claim is strained, to say the least. Our experience with the HazInfo project in Sri Lanka was quite the opposite. It will be interesting to see what others think.

OneWorld South Asia Home / News:Opinion & Comment - Disaster lessons from the past

Early warning systems are critical to reducing the impact of floods, droughts, hurricanes, tsunamis and other disasters. However, the ways in which warnings are relayed typically disadvantage women and their ability to respond to the disasters.

For example, in one fishing village in Peru prior to an extreme El…

1 Comment
Tags: Asia, early warning systems, Peru, Sri Lanka.

Significant progress made on making communities resilient to disasters

Nuwan Waidyanatha

on April 1, 2007

By Rohan Samarajiva

The findings of a pilot project on learning how information-communication technologies and community-based training can help in responding to disasters such as tsunamis were discussed by community leaders and international experts at a workshop on “SHARING KNOWLEDGE ON DISASTER WARNING, WITH A FOCUS ON COMMUNITY-BASED LAST–MILE WARNING SYSTEMS” held on March 28^th and 29^th, 2007 at the Sarvodaya headquarters in Moratuwa.

These finding ranged from the difficulties experienced in communicating disaster warnings to villages when mobile GSM and fixed CDMA telecom networks were not functional due to conflict conditions to the importance of not leaving newspapers on top of sensitive electronic equipment which can overheat and shut down as a result. In terms of the five communication technologies that were evaluated across multiple criteria, the addressable…

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Tags: addressable satellite radio sets, Canada, CDMA, communication technologies, Communication Technology Hardware, communications equipment, community warning device, determination trumping technology, Dialog Telekom, early warning systems, electronic equipment, five communication technologies, GSM, Indian Ocean, Information Communication Technologies, International Development Research Centre of Canada, Java, media professionals, MicroImage, MILE WARNING SYSTEMS, mobile phones, North America, Rohan Samarajiva, Sarvodaya headquarters, Sarvodaya, Sarvodaya Community Disaster Management Center, Sarvodaya Movement, software components, software industries, Sri Lanka, telecom networks, telecommunications, University of Moratuwa, VSAT.

Disaster preparedness, not just relief: Indian PM talks the talk

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 30, 2006

Very good.

Now will the Indian government walk the walk?

Will the other countries take the lead?

Govt. committed to develop a robust disaster management system: PM

Addressing the First India Disaster Management Congress here, Dr. Singh called for a paradigm shift in disaster management from a “relief-centric” and “post-event” response.

Pointing to the draft National Policy on Disaster Management, he said that it placed greater emphasis on efficient management of disasters, rather than focusing only on immediate response to disasters.

“Such an approach should place emphasis on improving early warning systems, ensuring the reach and efficacy of dissemination, creating awareness and building capacities at all levels of public administration,” he said.

1 Comment
Tags: Congress, early warning systems, Indian government, Singh.

Learning to Respond Intelligently

Nuwan Waidyanatha

on July 29, 2006

Often a response is a result of a stimulus. Evacuation drills are stimulus-response models; the drill is activated by a siren and the people are expected to react by hurrying to safety zones, in most cases defined by the community’s response plan; i.e. activating an existing emergency response plan.Social Cognition is encoding, storing, and retrieving social information and applying the cognition to social situations. Consider the social situation of a disaster and the event of setting of sirens. The awareness programming in community risk reduction helps the community prepare for social situations. Cognitive representation of social information are schema.

Biological Psychology defines “Awareness” as a human or animal perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event; awareness does not necessarily imply understanding.

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Tags: classic law, Colombo, early warning systems, Gordon Gow, Michael Shor, regulated systems, Shanthi Sena, Thai government, Thailand, United Nations.

First Phase of HazInfo Project Completed

Indi Samarajiva

on May 19, 2006

The first phase of the Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination (HazInfo) project funded by IDRC, was completed recently with the training of trainer component. LIRNEasia is implementing this project along with its project partners Sarvodaya, the largest community organization in Sri Lanka and TVE Asia Pacifi c (TVEAP), a non-profit media organization working in the Asian region.

LIRNEasia has undertaken a number of initiatives in the area of ICTs disasters and early warning post the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster of 2004. However, this is by far the largest project undertaken LIRNEasia in this area to evaluate the suitability of a number of ICTs (information and communication technologies) deployed in varied conditions for their effectiveness in the last-mile of a hazard warning system.

2 Comments
Tags: Bandaragama, Buddhist Temple, Colombo, communication technologies, Dialog Telekom\'s University of Moratuwa Mobile Communi, early warning systems, GSM, Indian Ocean, last-mile hazard warning technologies, Mile Hazard Dissemination, non-profit media organization working, Panama, Sarvodaya, Sarvodaya Development Center, Sarvodaya\'s Development Educational Center, Shanthi Sena Peace Brigade, Sri Lanka, Technology Partners, Thalpitiya, Thalpitya, the Indian Ocean tsunami, Vanguard Foundation, Wadduwa, west coast.

Information sought on siren systems and school drills for tsunami preparedness

Rohan Samarajiva

on March 29, 2006

An AFP report states that:
UN Under Secretary Patricio Bernal said Egeland and former US president Bill Clinton had taken to task government officials from countries in the Indian Ocean in a closed-door meeting here in a bid to speed up the process. “We are not worried about the technical side. At the moment we have 17 sensors in the Indian Ocean and by July we will have 23. If anything happens tonight, somebody will be there to move an alert,” he told AFP.
“What we are afraid of is whether this information will flow down. The countries have not done enough. There is a lack of political will,” he said. He praised Sri Lanka for setting up siren systems and drilling school children, but said all…

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Tags: Bill Clinton, early warning systems, Indian Ocean, siren systems, Sri Lanka, United Nations, United States.

Mapping disaster research

Rohan Samarajiva

on February 14, 2006

NSF EXPLORATORY WORKSHOP ON SENSOR BASED INFRASTRUCTURE FOR EARLY TSUNAMI DETECTION, Maui, Feb 9-10, 2006

What I learned during my visits to the Civil Defense Center and the Tsunami Museum in Hilo and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Ewa Beach in Hawai’i last January greatly contributed to the disaster communication research program undertaken by LIRNEasia in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Therefore, I welcomed the opportunity to step back and reflect on the research program a year later, also in Hawai’i.

The occasion was a workshop funded by the National Science Foundation of the US. It was organized by Louise Comfort, Daniel Mosse and Taieb Znati, all at the U of Pittsburgh. Louise is from Public Policy and has been working on disasters for…

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Tags: Arthur C. Clarke Centre, Chip McCreery, Civil Defense Center, Daniel Mosse, deep-sea sensor devices, Disaster Management Center, early warning systems, Ewa Beach, GPS, India, Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Kenya, Louise Comfort, National Science Foundation, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, Pittsburgh, public warning systems, Rhett Butler, sensor networks, sensor-based networks, separate systems, Sri Lanka, Taieb Znati, Tanzania, Thailand, Tsunami Museum, United States, Vanguard Foundation, Walter Mooney.

Tsunami Lessons

Rohan Samarajiva

on April 1, 2005

Ten preliminary lessons of the 28th March 2005 Sumatra great earthquake (Photo Source)

LIRNEasia, together with Vanguard Foundation, intends to systematically analyze the Sri Lankan media response to the great earthquake of the 28th of March. However, it appears useful to draw some preliminary lessons from this tragedy which has cost over 1,000 lives, including the people of Nias and other islands and those in Sri Lanka and elsewhere who died as a result of the warnings. The conclusions are preliminary; comments are welcome.

# Earthquake hazard detection is easy; tsunami hazard detection is not. One cannot simply infer the existence of a destructive tsunami from an earthquake. Whether a tsunami has been generated and the direction it is likely to go requires the application of expert judgment.
#…

8 Comments
Tags: Asia, Asian Center, BBC, CNN, conventional mass media, deep sea tsunami detection devices, Department of Meteorology, early warning systems, electricity transformers, Hawaii, insurance, media channel, media response, Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, SMS, Sri Lanka, telecom networks, University of Colombo, Vanguard Foundation.

SMS as part of Early Warning System

Divakar Goswami

on January 12, 2005

SMS enlisted for Tsunami warning system?

By Ben Charny, CNET News.com
Monday, January 10 2005 11:55 AM

At least five countries have begun developing an alert system using cell phone text messages, a response to the catastrophic Asian tsunami that exposed flaws in present-day early warning schemes.

Discussions among officials in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, which were hard hit by the killer tsunami, along with France, have begun in just the last few days, according to a source familiar with the plans.

The goal is to supplement older systems that proved little help for nations in the path of the immense waves in late December that have so far killed more than 140,000 people in 11 countries. Already emerging from the wreckage are tales of emergency workers and…

93 Comments
Tags: AC, Ben Charny, carrier connections, cell phones, cellular telephone, early warning systems, France, Greg Wilfahrt, India, Indonesia, John Jackson, SMS, Sri Lanka, Thailand, wireless e-mail, Yankee Group.

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