1. Regional Joint Conference on Disaster Relief and Management,
Challenges of Implementing the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) in Sri Lanka
Regional Joint Conference on Disaster Relief and Management,
Alexandria, Egypt
14th-17th Mar 2007
Nuwan Waidyanatha
12 Balcombe Place, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka
Tel: +94 (0)

2. 5 ICTs Tested for Reliability and Effectiveness in the Last-Mile
CDMA
Mobile Phone
RAD
AREA
VSAT

3. HazInfo Research Matrix for Pilot Project
The general objective is to evaluate the suitability of five ICTs deployed in varied conditions for their suitability in the last mile of a national disaster warning system for Sri Lanka and possibly by extension to other developing countries.

4. Multiple Paths, Multiple Technologies and Multiple Gateways

5. Common Alerting Protocol Profile for Sri Lanka
Priority
<urgency>
<severity>
<certainty>
Urgent
Immediate
Extreme
Observed
High
Expected
Severe
Medium
Moderate
Low
Unknown
Likely
???
Unique ID
Name of entity
Date & Time
Exercise / Test / Actual
Alert / Acknowledgement
Public / Private / Restricted

6. Message Received at the Sarvodaya Hub
TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST
Last-Mile HazInfo Simulation. No Repeat No Real Event is Effect
TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 001 Issued at 09:55 am on Monday, December 11, 2006 BY Anonymous
A SEVERE CATEGORY 4 CYCLONE is now current for AMPARA and MATARA District coastal areas. At 06:00 am local time SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE MONTY was estimated to be 80 kilometres northeast of Ampara District and moving southwest at 10 kilometres per hour. Severe Tropical Cyclone Monty is expected to cross the coast in the vicinity of Ampara and Matara Districts during Monday. Gales with gusts to 180 kilometres per hour are likely in coastal communities in Ampara and Matara District during the day.
This is to alert the residents of Ampara and Matara District about the potential of a very dangerous storm tide as the cyclone centre approaches the coast. Tides are likely to rise significantly above the normal high tide mark with very dangerous flooding, damaging waves and strong currents.
Widespread heavy rain and further flooding are likely in southern parts of the Ampara and Matara Districts over the next few days.
Last-Mile HazInfo Simulation. No Repeat No Real Event is Effect.

7. Message Transformed to CAP Message at Sarvodaya Hub

8. Example of Output Message from Hazard-Information-Hub to the Last-Mile
<alert>
<identifier>HIH T143500</identifier>
<sent> T10:20: :00</sent>
<status>Exercise</status>
<msgType>Alert</msgType>
<scope>Restricted</scope>
<info>
<language>en-US</language>
<category>Meto</ category>
< event>Cyclone</event>
<responseType>Prepare</responseType>
<urgency>Expected</urgency>
<severity>Severe</severity>
<certainty>Observed</certainty>
<description>At 06:00 am local time SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE MONTY was estimated to be 80 kilometers northeast of Ampara District and moving southwest at 10 kilometers per hour. Severe Tropical Cyclone Monty is expected to cross the coast in the vicinity of Ampara and Matara Districts during Monday. Gales with gusts to 180 kilometers per hour are likely in coastal communities in Ampara and Matara District during the day.
This is to alert the residents of Ampara and Matara District about the potential of a very dangerous storm tide as the cyclone centre approaches the coast. Tides are likely to rise significantly above the normal high tide mark with very dangerous flooding, damaging waves and strong currents. Widespread heavy rain and further flooding are likely in southern parts of the Ampara and Matara Districts over the next few days. </description>
</alert>

9. “WorldSpace” CAP Alerts over AREA-B
Interface
HIH Monitor issued CAP Message
Receiver Device and {Medium}
ICT Guardian received
Message elements
ANNY Internet Browser
(AREA)
All sub elements in <Alert> element and message in <Language>en only.
AREA – B {Text}
<msgType>Alert
<Scope>restricted
<Sender>hih
<Status>exercise
<Category>met
<Urgency>expected
<Severity> sever
<Certainty>observed
<Event>A SEVERE CATEGORY 4 CYCLONE … {restricted 250 characters}

10. “Dialog Telekom” CAP Alerts over Mobile Phones & RADs
Interface
HIH Monitor issued CAP Message
Receiver Device and {Medium}
ICT Guardian received
Message elements
DEWN Internet Browse
<info> sub element with
<Language>en
<Description> … {no size restriction}
<Language>si
<Language>tm MP
{Text}
“Warning” <info> <Language>en
<Description> A SEVERE CATEGORY 4 CYCLONE…
<Description> …{sinhala}
<Description> … {tamil}
{restricted by 140 characters}
RAD

11. “Solana Networks” Internet Public Alerting over VSAT
Interface
HIH Monitor issued CAP Message
Receiver Device and {Medium}
ICT Guardian received
Message elements
IPAS Internet Browser
<Description> with <Language>en only … {no size restriction}
Personal Computer {Text}
<Description> A SEVERE CATEGORY 4 CYCLONE … {no size restriction}

12. Voice Alerts over CDMA CDMA 2000 1x_RTT
Interface
HIH Monitor issued CAP Message
Receiver Device and {Medium}
ICT Guardian received
Message elements
CDMA x_RTT
<Description> … {no size and language restriction}
CDMA2000 1x_RTT Telephones {Audio}
<Description> A SEVERE CATEGORY 4 CYCLONE …{no size restriction}

13. CAP Interoperability Silent Tests
SMS/GSM
TCP/IP
TCP/IP
TCP/IP
UDP/IP
Study of Interoperability

14. RELIABILITY

15. Reliability of WorldSpace Satellite System
Reliability is measured as a function of the difference between the time it takes ICT Provider to “receive” message in to their servers and the time the message was “received” by the ICT Guardian.

16. Reliability of WorldSpace Satellite System
(Average = , Variance = )
Average = 0.91

17. Reliability of WorldSpace Satellite Radios in the Last-Mile
Reliability is measured as a function of the difference between the time it takes HIH Monitor to “receive” message and the time the message was “received” by the Community.

18. Reliability of WorldSpace Satellite Radios in the Last-Mile
(Average = Variance = )

19. Control Village MTTF
(Average = , Variance = )

20. Reliability Comparison of WorldSpace Relative to Control Villages
Segment
Average
Variance
Stand alone WorldSpace System
0.9389
0.0041
End-to-End Last-Mile Alerting System
0.2081
0.0365
Control Villages
0.1074
0.0008

21. EFFECTIVENESS

22. Sigmoid Scaling Function for Language Diversity
Value
Fuzzy Rule
1.00
Sinhala, Tamil, & English
0.95
Sinhala & Tamil
0.85
Sinhala & English
0.70
Sinhala Only
0.50
Tamil Only
0.20
English Only
Otherwise
WorldSpace AREA A B C M
Language Diversity
(‘si’, ‘tm’, ‘en’)
1.00
Full CAP (‘XML’)
0.85
Medium (audio, text)
Rating
Study the Effectiveness of ICT as a Warning Technology

23. Sigmoid Scaling Function for Full CAP Compliance
Value
Rules
1.00
All sub elements that are contained in the <alert> element, which includes all the qualifier and sub elements
0.95
Mandatory defined in the Profile for Sri Lanka, which are the sub elements of the qualifier <alert> qualifier and <Info> elements -- <urgency>, <severity>, <certainty>, <description>
0.85
Mandatory sub elements of the <alert> qualifier element and the sub element <description>
0.70
<description> only
0.50
Mandatory sub elements of the <alert> element only
Otherwise
WorldSpace AREA A B C M
Language Diversity
(‘si’, ‘tm’, ‘en’)
1.00
Full CAP (‘XML’)
0.85
Medium (audio, text)
Rating
Study the Effectiveness of ICT as a Warning Technology

24. Study the Effectiveness of ICT as a Warning Technology
Sigmoid Scaling Function for -- Mix of Audio and Text Communication Medium
WorldSpace AREA A B C M
Language Diversity
(‘si’, ‘tm’, ‘en’)
1.00
Full CAP (‘XML’)
0.85
Medium (audio, text)
Rating
Value
Fuzzy Rule
1.00
Audio and Text
0.95
Audio only
0.85
Text only
Otherwise
Video not considers
Study the Effectiveness of ICT as a Warning Technology

25. Reliability and Effectiveness of the AREA - B
Measure
AREA – B
Reliability of WorldSpace System for Last-Mile Early Warnings in Sri Lanka
0.21
Effectiveness of ICT (Complete CAP Messaging only)
0.85
Rating
0.18
Rating of ICT as a Warning Technology

26. OTHER TECHNICAL PROBLEMS

27. Network Connections

28. Network Congestion

33. Observations/Conclusions
An effective system must first include:
development of the necessary human capacity -HIH-Monitors, ICT Guardians, and ERP Coordinators
proper local risk management
public education to supplement the deficiencies of an end-to-end fully- automatic early warning system.
simulated drills conducted regularly