The International Standard Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and the UN Action Plan on Early Warnings for All
Alert-Hub Org CIC (Community Interest Company)
Session 286
The goal of the UN Action Plan on Early Warnings for All is to ensure that every person on Earth is protected by an early warning system in the next five years. This an expansive vision and a huge undertaking with implications on many aspects of ICTs worldwide. It is also a crucial and life-critical aspect of the world's Information Society.
One of the four Pillars of the UN Action Plan concerns Warning Communication and Dissemination. One of its two Outcomes is: "All countries have the capability for effective, authoritative emergency alerting that leverages the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), suitable for all media and all hazards."
CAP, ITU standard X.1303, is used for all types of hazards: hurricanes and other severe weather, floods, tsunami, earthquakes, volcanoes, fires, oil spills, chemical spills, disease, public safety, and so on.
CAP leverages all manner of ICTs--the infrastructure for public alerting of emergencies. This includes broadcast radio and television, mobile networks, satellite broadcast, navigation systems, websites, social media, push notifications, networked sirens, highway signs, automated safety devices, and much more.
CAP is widely adopted but not yet universal. Today, 82% of the world’s population lives in a country with at least one national-level CAP alert news feed operational.
The UN Action Plan asserts a specific action to "Establish CAP editor and Alert Hub to further enhance multi-hazard CAP based emergency alerting". The free Alert Hub service now aggregates emergency alerts from 199 CAP alert feeds, published by 131 countries/territories and other sources. The cloud-based CAP Editor freeware service is now in operational use by 53 countries/territories that publish 96 of those 199 CAP alert feeds. Both CAP Editor and Alert Hub are provided by Alert-Hub .Org CIC, and both will be demonstrated in this workshop.
The speaker at this workshop is the CEO of Alert-Hub. Org. He is one of the authors of the CAP standard, and has 20+ years of experience with implementing CAP in countries all over the world. He consults regularly with ITU, IFRC, UNDRR, WMO, and many other governmental and commercial organizations worldwide.
Eliot Christian is a pro bono consultant to various organizations, including IFRC, ITU, UNDRR, WMO and the U.S. Agency for International Development. He is retired from WMO and the U.S. Geological Survey, where he was a chief architect of major, global-scale programs, typically concerned with sharing of environmental data. Since 2001, he has been active in developing and promoting the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP).
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C1. The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
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C2. Information and communication infrastructure
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C3. Access to information and knowledge
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C4. Capacity building
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C5. Building confidence and security in use of ICTs
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C6. Enabling environment
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C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-government
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C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-health
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C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-environment
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C7. ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life — E-agriculture
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C8. Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
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C9. Media
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C10. Ethical dimensions of the Information Society
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C11. International and regional cooperation
Given the primary role of governments in official public alerting and the gap in CAP uptake by developing countries, this workshop links to WSIS Action Lines: C1, The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development; and C7, ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life.
There are also strong linkages to WSIS Action Lines: C2, Information and communication infrastructure; C3, Access to information and knowledge; and C4, Capacity building.
Because public alerting of emergencies deals with life-critical information and is a potential target for malicious disruption and disinformation, this workshop links to WSIS Action Line C5, Building confidence and security in use of ICTs.
The CAP-enabled emergency alerting infrastructure is already being exploited as an Enabling Environment, so this workshop links as well to WSIS Action Line C6.
Among the ongoing challenges in public alerting of emergencies are assuring that the message is understandable and actionable, and focusing on how to improve service to underserved segments of society. These challenges link this workshop to WSIS Action Line C8, Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content, and to WSIS Action Line C10, Ethical dimensions of the Information Society.
Throughout the alert origination and dissemination activities, emergency alerting of the public should be seen as a partnership between many actors, including government, NGOs, civil society, and many commercial organizations as well. This is especially the case for the news media, including "new media" as well as traditional broadcast radio and television. Accordingly, this workshop links strongly to WSIS Action Line C9, Media.
This workshop is scoped to cover all societies worldwide. In that regard, this theme is inherently linked to WSIS Action Line C11, International and regional cooperation.
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Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
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Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries
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Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
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Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts
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Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources
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Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss
This workshop is primarily linked to Goal 11: Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. That is because the vast majority of emergency situations requiring public alerts occurs at the scale of local communities and cities.
This workshop also links to Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, because warning of emergencies is essential to help communities prevent destruction of property and minimize loss of life.
This workshop links to Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and among countries, because less developed countries typically have inferior emergency warning systems, even though they are usually more vulnerable to disasters.
Experts studying Climate Change caution that weather-related hazard threats will become even more severe and more frequent over the coming decades. That eventuality makes it all the more important to enhance emergency alerting in societies worldwide. That links this workshop to Goal 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.
The enhanced emergency alerting infrastructure associated with this workshop can also help with Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources and with Goal 15: Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss. A specific example is the use of CAP in the European SAFERS project, which is focused on emergency alerts for forest fires.
CAP Introduction video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IsNdN8ohyk&t=8s
Example CAP alert (volcano) https://youtu.be/YthCJEaGrKc
Freeware CAP Editor tool https://cap.alert-hub.org/
International Register of Alerting Authorities https://alertingauthority.wmo.int/
UN Early Warnings for All Action Plan
https://www.preventionweb.net/publication/early-warnings-all-executive-action-plan-2023-2027
Call to Action on Emergency Alerting
https://cap-uptake.s3.amazonaws.com/call-to-action.html
Alert-Hub.Org CIC website https://alert-hub.org/home.html
CAP for Broadcasters https://drrhub.org/learn-cap.php