Use trustworthy, widespread, multi-lingual, culturally appropriate and inclusive means of alerting the target population in case of disasters

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    30.09.2018

    Disaster managers and other relevant authorities should seek to identify the most suitable technological means to alert communities during an emergency. The technology used must be trustworthy, irrespective of whether it is fully automatic or manual. It must be adapted to the communities’ culture and level of technology acceptance. Moreover, the system must allow alerting the whole population, which often implies sending a unique message through multiple communication platforms.

    Applicable to:

    Stakeholders: Policy Makers, Disaster Managers

    Disaster Phases: Prevention, Preparedness

    Types of Actors Concerned: Non-active citizens, Active citizens, Media, Entrepreneurs

    Hazards: Natural hazards, Man-made non-intentional hazards or emergency situations, Man-made intentional hazards

    Cultural Map Entries:

    • Communication patterns between the different actors of disaster response

    • Ethnically inclusive climates change adaptation strategies

    • Introduction of a colour coding system for risk levels used for warning alerts amongst different actors

    • Specialised assistance tools developed by the German Red Cross for people with special needs

    • Preparedness actions for all vulnerable groups during heat waves

    • The EU-funded project ‘Aware and Resilient’ (2013-2015) description

    • Comunitat Valenciana' is a public service in the Valencian region that receives emergency calls in Valencian, Spanish, English, French and German

    • Language-independent communication in case of disaster

    • Cultural differences in visual communication and perception

    • Text messages, the most efficient and resilient mode of communication after a disaster

    • Security values and communication in risk perception

    • The roles of religious leaders in disaster preparedness

    • Importance of safety instructions in non-native languages

    • Information channels to be used to communicate information about disaster preparedness

    • Interest in receiving information about disaster preparedness amongst citizens in Frankfurt

    • The importance of conveying disaster-related messages in at least three languages

    • The role of celebrity leaders in mobilizing citizens and resources

    • Language barriers in disaster situations

    • "Territorial belonging" of individuals and its impact on the response to a disaster

    • Traditional vs modern communication channels

    • "Home alone" scenario for children during a disaster less likely in Italy

    • Perception of elderly as volunteers

    • Perception of foreigners as volunteers

    • The importance of communication strategies for the preparedness and response phases

    • Protection of minorities in disaster situations

    • Engaging community leaders to foster trust in authorities

    • Building trust in early warning systems

    • Building effective communication mechanism between communities and DMAs

    • Risk perception in relation to hazard type

    • Community leaders as gatekeepers in social networks

    • Special information needs of young people

    • The special needs of elderly people in information dissemination

    • Women's and minorities' risk perceptions during the preparedness phase

    • Relationship between community sense and technology use

    General association with cultural factors: Communication


    Implementation steps:

    A. Always take into account the social vulnerabilities, technological culture and habits of target groups when setting-up early-warning alerting systems. Related cultural factors: Communication, Social exclusion

    B. Foster the fast distribution of disaster information or alerts / warnings. Related cultural factors: Communication

    C. Identify and recruit “online volunteers”, e.g. through adverts/banners on social media sites, who would be willing to take up the role of an information distributor in a disaster situation, using their personal online social networks. Related cultural factors: Communication

    D. Ensure the effectiveness of the early warning by following the principles of timeliness (e.g. the information is communicated in time) and credibility (e.g., the source/platform is trusted). Related cultural factors: Communication

    E. Create partnerships with the necessary stakeholders e.g. mobile operators in order to find the most efficient means of alerting the population in case of disasters. Related cultural factors: Communication

    F. Provide disaster information and announcements in more than one language in order to increase availability of information to different communities. Related cultural factors: Communication, Languages

    G. Disaster managers should take into account that people normally doubt warnings based on factors that are either people-centred, risk-centred or system-centred, e.g. citizens may be less likely to respond to warnings of man-made disasters than those of natural disasters. Related cultural factors: Communication

    H. Design and adapt emergency warning systems for visual, hearing and cognitive impairments, and further communicate them with multiple media. Related cultural factors: Communication, Social exclusion

    I. Consider cultural factors in disaster communication. Related cultural factors: Communication


    Sources:
    file icon Deiverable 2.1: Report on actors in disaster management - CARISMAND
    pdf, 3.9 MB
    file icon Deliverable 2.2: Report on systems and processes in disaster management - CARISMAND
    pdf, 9.2 MB
    file icon Deliverable 3.1: Report on technologies use and cultural factors - CARISMAND
    pdf, 5.2 MB
    file icon Deliverable 3.2: Report on best and emerging practices of technologies for disaster risk management and their adaptation to different cultural groups - CARISMAND
    pdf, 3.4 MB
    file icon Deliverable 5.4: Report on Citizens’ Reactions and Opinions: Citizen Summit 2 (Malta) - CARISMAND
    pdf, 2.4 MB
    file icon Deliverable 7.1: Report on literature review - CARISMAND
    pdf, 2.5 MB
    file icon Deliverable 7.3: Report on cultural factors and citizen empowerment - CARISMAND
    pdf, 2.4 MB

    Further reading:

    Jayasinghe, G. et al., 2006. A GSM Alarm Devise For Disaster Early Warning. In First International Conference on Industrial and Information Systems. pp. 1–5.

    Basher, R., 2006. Global early warning systems for natural hazards: systematic and people centred. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 364(1845), pp.2167–2182. Available at:

    http://www.jstor.org/stable/25190320

    http://www.jstor.org.ezproxylocal.library.nova.edu/stable/pdfplus/25190320.pdf?acceptTC=true

    http://rsta.royalsocietypublishing.org/cgi/doi/10.1098/rsta.2006.1819

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