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ICTs for a Sustainable World




           4.4.3. Mobile App                                  belong  various  jurisdictions.  Philippines  had  implemented
                                                              geocodes to define their administrative areas. CAP provides
           During the silent-tests we realized some of the Smartphone   means  for  defining  an  alerting  area  associated  with  the
           to  block  the  audible  siren.  These  were  caused  by   respective  geocodes.  The  lesson  learned  from  the
           Smartphone applications that kill applications that idle for a   Philippines was valuable for requesting Maldives to follow
           long  period  of  time.  Also  certain  Smartphones  had  not   the  same,  seeking  assistance  from  the  Maldives  Land  and
           provided  the  mobile  SAMBRO  app  with  permissions  to   Survey Authority.
           forward notifications.
           The first mobile SAMBRO app was developed for Android
           Smartphones.  In  Myanmar  we  observe  nearly  everyone  to       5. CONCLUSION
           use  Smartphones.  Some  were  still  using  Android  versions
           below  4.4.  GCM  and  other  SAMBRO  feature  do  not   EWSs,  in  the  region,  are  gradually  evolving  to  their
           function well on Android phones with an operating system   required  potential.  However,  the  concepts  of  moving
           version below 4.4. The app was also migrated to the Apple   beyond  a  top-down  approach  to  a  peer-to-peer  approach
           iOS  platform.  This  decision  was  made  when  CAM   using  software  services  is  yet  to  mature.  SAMBRO  has
           presented  that  sixty  percent  of  the  phones  were   realized those gaps and has presented itself to server in this
           Smartphones and of them there was a fifty-fifty market split   capacity.  National policies and strategies must be put into
           between Android and Apple phones. As a result the project   practice  to  further  strengthen  these  concepts.  A  growing
           made investments in adapting to the Apple market as well.   challenge  faced  by  National  initiatives  is  integrating  the
           Following the CAP standard 1.2 which states the scope of   early  warning  dissemination  and  coordination  with  all
           the alert. The ‘Public’ alerts are disseminated to the public.   relevant  stakeholders.  The  authors  have  realized  the
           In SAMBRO, the implementer can create different groups   intricacies  of  implementing  cross-agency  situational-
           responsible  for  different  activities  during  the  disaster  and   awareness  platforms  in  the  Region.  Lessons  learned  from
           issue Restricted or Private alerts for this purpose. Similarly,   the current experience provides inputs to shaping SAMBRO
           the  previous  alert  can  be  updated,  clear,  cancel  or  error   strategies  for  operationalizing  such  systems  for  improving
           easily according to the CAP standard 1.2           institutional responsiveness to all-hazards.

           4.4.4. Predefined Alerting Areas                                    REFERENCES

           The  project  realized  that  there  is  a  need  for  developing   [1]  United  Nation  International  Strategy  for  Disaster  Reduction
           predefined  alerting  area  polygons  to  enhance  warning   (UNISDR), “HFA Progress in Asia Pacific”, 2009-2011
           efficiencies. To address this need SAMBRO has introduced
           a  mapping  tool  that  allows  Risk-Analysts  and  Warning   [2]  A.  Zia,  and  C.H.  Wagner,  “Mainstreaming  early  warning
                                                              systems  in  development  and  planning  processes:  Multilevel
           Practitioners  to  develop  a  set  of  predefined  polygons.   implementation  of  Sendai  framework  in  Indus  and  Sahel”,
           Identifying the level of risk by geographical area allows for   International Journal of Disaster Risk Science, 6(2), pp. 189-199.,
           defining impact-based alerting. Integrating risk maps, with   2015
           SAMBRO, allows differentiating community that might be
           at a greater risk to a hazard event over another. In order to   [3]  S.  Smith  and  D.  Bunker,  “Disaster  Management  and
           save the lives and livelihoods, alerts can be issued to higher   Community Warning Systems: Inter-Organizational Collaboration
           impacting communities first for the responders to attend that   and  ICT  Innovation”,  Pacific  Asia  Conference  on  Information
           community’s  needs  first.  Thus,  removing  the  burden  of   Systems (PASIC) Proceedings, Hyderabad, India, 2009
           optimizing the response resources.
           Naturally, it is difficult to predefine alert areas for a forest   [4]  J.  Pagotto  and  D.  O’Donnell,  “Canada’s  Multi-Agency
                                                              Situational  Awareness  System  -  Keeping  it  simple”,  The  9th
           fire  a  tropical  cyclone  but  can  be  defined  for  volcanic,   International  ISCRAM  Conference.  Proceedings,  Vancouver,
           tsunami, and floods. The National Stakeholders, in the three   Canada, April 2012
           countries, faced difficulties acquiring any kind of risk map
           as  Vector  or  Rasta  GIS  data.  Some  cases  they  had  very   [5] WEF  -  World Economic Forum, “City Limits: The Risks of
           limited  risk  maps,  confined  to  a  few  targeted  regions  or   Rapid  and  Unplanned  Urbanization  in  Developing  Countries”,
           townships,  but  as  still  images;  of  no  use  to  SAMBRO  to   10th Edition of the Global Risks Report, 2015
           offer interactive analysis and mapping capabilities.
           A  dilemma  with  Island  nations  (or  Archipelagos)  was   [6] R.J. Nicholls, P.P. Wong, V.R. Burkett, J.O. Codignotto, J.E.
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           For example, Maldives wanting to develop predefined alert   Adaptation and Vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II
           areas for each of the Atolls, when zooming in to an Atoll   to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel
           could  not  see  some  of  tiny  Islands  to  realize,  when  they   on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK,
           were drawing a polygon, was including or excluding those   pp 315-356, 2007
           unseen Islands.
           Geocodes  presented  themselves  as  an  innovating  solution   [7] D. Griggs, M. Stafford-Smith, O. Gaffney, J. Rockström, M.C.
           for overcoming the dilemma of differentiating Islands that   Öhman,  P.  Shyamsundar,  I.  Novel  et.al,  “Policy:  Sustainable




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