Lessons Learned End to End CAP Alerting Systems WMO CAP Implementers Workshop Geneva, Switzerland Norm Paulsen Environment Canada April 24, 2013

Page 2 – October 20, 2015 Introduction Environment Canada as an issuer of warnings distributed nearly 100,000 CAP messages last year Environment Canada has numerous clients, and client types, for all of our CAP messages Clients, in feedback to us, have many and different needs when it comes to alerting information All of that information as a whole can be accommodated in CAP The following are a number of lessons learned and solutions employing CAP, CAP-CP and our own alerting model.

Page 3 – October 20, ) Defining “alert” Confusion over what an ALERT is has led to problems in the “issuing authority” / “last mile distributor” relationship in Canada. Example: a typical series of EC warning messages How many ALERTS in this scenario? Answer: It depends on whose point of view. at…Warning StatusReferenced Locations 1pmIssued2 - active Ended3pm Continued1 - active, 1 - ended2pm 1 - ended

Page 4 – October 20, ) Defining “message” Confusion over what a MESSAGE is has led to problems in the “issuing authority” / “last mile distributor” relationship in Canada. How many MESSAGES in this scenario? How many audience messages? Answer: It depends on whose point of view. at…Warning StatusReferenced Locations 1pmIssued2 - active Ended3pm Continued1 - active, 1- ended2pm 1 - ended

Page 5 – October 20, 2015 CAP Definitions CAP is a message protocol and conveniently doesn’t define what an alert is. CAP does define what a message is. CAP defines 3 messages for this scenario. Each message supersedes the previous message. at…CAP messageReferenced Locations 1pm alert2 - active cancel3pm update1 - active, 1- ended2pm 1 - ended

Page 6 – October 20, 2015 Last Mile Distributor Lessons The audience message is distinguishable in space The last mile distributor wants the right audience message for the right place at… CAP message Referenced Locations alert 2 - active 1pm2pm update 1 - active, 1 - ended 3pm cancel 1 - ended The 1pm CAP message has 1 audience messageThe 2pm CAP message has 2 audience messagesThe 3pm CAP message has 1 audience message Audience Message 1: “Run for Cover” Audience Message 2: “It’s over” Audience Message 1: “Run for Cover” Audience Message 1: “It’s over”

Page 7 – October 20, 2015 Audience Messages Appear in Separate Blocks - Alert 1pm - Monitor Tornado Immediate Severe Observed 3pm Tornado warning in effect - Penticton - Monitor Tornado Immediate Severe Observed 3pm Tornado warning in effect - Kelowna - Update 2pm - Monitor Tornado Immediate Severe Observed 4pm Tornado warning in effect - Penticton - AllClear Tornado Past Minor Observed 3pm Tornado warning ended - Kelowna - Cancel 3pm - AllClear Tornado Past Minor Observed 4pm Tornado warning ended - Penticton

Page 8 – October 20, ) Defining “subject event” Confusion over SUBJECT EVENT and ALERT MESSAGE has led to problems in the “issuing authority” / “last mile distributor” relationship in Canada. The following example is 1 CAP message with 2 events and 3 audience messages. –LMD expecting 1 audience message, but assumes that means 1 event –Confusion over expires referring to the event as opposed to the audience message - Snowfall Immediate Severe Observed 3pm Snowfall warning in effect - Edmonton - Snowfall Past Minor Observed 1pm Snowfall warning ended - Calgary - Roof Collapse Future Extreme Likely Friday Roof Collapse warning in effect - Edmonton Arena

Page 9 – October 20, 2015 CAP Definitions Several CAP elements make reference to a subject event Several CAP elements make reference to an alert message ElementDefinition categoryThe code denoting the category of the subject event of the alert message onsetThe expected time of the beginning of the subject event of the alert message severityThe code denoting the severity of the subject event of the alert message ElementDefinition headline The text headline of the alert message instructionThe text describing the recommended action to be taken by recipients of the alert message areaDescThe text describing the affected area of the alert message

Page 10 – October 20, 2015 Alert MessageSubject Event HeadlineEvent EffectiveOnset Severity / InstructionEvent Code Last Mile Distributor Lessons Alert MessageSubject Event HeadlineEvent EffectiveOnset Severity / InstructionEvent Code 1:02pm ??? Tsunami The Vancouver has: Audience Message 1: “Tsunami warning in effect” Audience Message 2: “Tsunami warning in effect” Tsunami warning in effect Extreme / Run for the hills 12:48pm The Victoria has: 1:05pm ??? TsunamiTsunami warning in effect Severe / Take shelter 12:48pm

Page 11 – October 20, ) Supplementary non-standard CAP Information Last mile distributors in public alerting tend to want customized alert message information Emergency managers in peer to peer alerting tend to want customized subject event information - tsunami warning in effect for southwest Vancouver coastline * *Headline constrained to 140 characters. - Wave_Arrival_Time * 1:02pm *Parameter value for wave arrival time a community standard

Page 12 – October 20, 2015 Supplementary Information Solution Alert issuer in Canada accommodates both client groups by using a concept known as a “layer”. –A business can define a collection of supplementary information elements (what we call a layer) –Using existing mechanisms in CAP, we can insert a layer of information into each CAP message layer:EC-MSC-SMC:1.0:Alert_Type warning layer:EC-MSC-SMC:1.0:CLC layer:SOREM:1.0:Broadcast_Immediately No profile:CAP-CP:Event:0.4 snowfall

Page 13 – October 20, 2015 Alberta Alberta coordinates a CAP system with their downstream broadcast partners Alberta aggregates our CAP, inserts their own layer and re-originates the CAP message to their partners - x1475b Update 2pm layer:AEMA:1.0 Alberta layer:AEMA:1.0:TvCrawler Tornado warning for Edmonton and surrounding area. Warning in effect until 2pm layer:AEMA:1.0:SMSText Tornado Warning layer:AEMA:1.0:WebPageBanner Tornado Warning in effect

Page 14 – October 20, 2015 OASIS and CAP OASIS working through a formalization of the concepts on a broader scale CAP already has mechanisms in place to handle concepts of layers and profiles (sample of some of the elements below) ProfileConstraintOptional CAP element constrained to being a required element (i.e., ) ProfileConstraintOptional CAP elements and constrained to a predefined list ProfileConstraintDefine a required element for community defined use LayerExtensionDefine a geocode scheme to match an existing operational enviornment LayerExtensionCAP message extended to customized medium message (i.e. ) LayerExtensionCAP message extended to provide event details (i.e. )

Page 15 – October 20, 2015 Customization Depending on the end client for the CAP message, there are different pieces of information that are of interest This suggests a different CAP message for each end client…or… An all inclusive CAP message where each end client can retrieve for themselves what is of interest to them The latter is easier to do from the point of view of the originator and the former is easier from the point of view of the end client The approach within Environment Canada is to promote customization of the CAP XML message

Page 16 – October 20, 2015 Customization (2) Use one operation to create the all inclusive CAP message and then customize that CAP message Take the CAP message file and copy it and customize it to a specific end client’s needs a8ca Update 2pm - Environment Canada AllClear Tornado Past Minor Observed 3pm Tornado warning ended - Kelowna - Environment Canada Monitor Tornado Immediate Severe Observed 4pm Tornado warning in effect - Penticton

Page 17 – October 20, 2015 Customization (2) Use one operation to create the all inclusive CAP message and then customize that CAP message Take the CAP message file and copy it and customize it to a specific end client’s needs a8ca Update 2pm Environment Canada English tornado 4pm tornado warning in effect - Penticton - Environnement Canada French tornade 4pm alerte de tornade en vigueur - Penticton

Page 18 – October 20, 2015 Customization (2) Use one operation to create the all inclusive CAP message and then customize that CAP message Take the CAP message file and copy it and customize it to a specific end client’s needs - Update 2pm layer:SOREM:1.0 layer:EC-MSC-SMC:1.0:Alert_Type warning layer:SOREM:1.0:Broadcast_Immediately No layer:EC-MSC-SMC:1.0 Environment Canada layer:AEMA:1.0 layer:AEMA:1.0:TvCrawler Tornado warning for Edmonton and surrounding area. Warning in effect until 2pm x1475b Alberta a8ca

Page 19 – October 20, 2015 Conclusion