1. Emergency Alerting in Canada
Lawrence Sham
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)
August 2016

2. CAP at “Environment and Climate Change Canada” (ECCC)
CAP first implemented as a pilot in 2011
Today, approximately 150,000 CAP messages are produced annually and distributed to partners for the purposes of public alerting
Each CAP message serves all our partners in one file
We don’t create individually customized CAP message files for clients
Both Official Languages in one CAP message (separate <info> blocks)
Customization (constrained content, tailored text, markers, etc. ) is done in <parameter>s
Each <parameter> is attributed back to the owner of that customization requirement
A warning is usually made up of several messages and we issue one CAP XML message per warning message.

3. Multiple Clients and Client Groups (1)
Clients that own customizations
SOREM – Senior Officials Responsible for Emergency Management (in Canada)
NAADs Our primary aggregator (designed for Broadcasters but anyone that wants our CAP can subscribe)
NAADs creates audio files
ECCC
yes we do create some of our own customizations for our own private clients
Wireless (forthcoming – in pilot)
shorter text

4. Multiple Clients and Client Groups (2)
Clients that do not own customizations or just use one or more of the other customizations listed above
Emergency Responder Organizations (dozens)
Provinces (5 active, others watching)
Private Companies (over 15 at last count including Google) running private services
International Companies (mostly U.S. based) running news programming packaging services

5. Multiple Clients and Client Groups (3)
Google (a single Client)
In addition to the web based service above, Google runs several other Alerting Services derived off our CAP information.

6. Multiple Clients and Client Groups (4)
Canadian Broadcasters (a group of clients)
All Broadcasters (big and small; tv and radio), and their vendors
A collaboration known as “Alert Ready”
All Use the SOREM customization for Emergency Alerts
Less than 1% of ECCC CAP messages – but the most critical ones (tornado, etc.)
The Broadcaster group has their own Common Look and Feel guidelines
Standard alarm sounds
Display guidelines
Languages
Examples of client group customizations that we address in our CAP
Customized text for Broadcasters (also can be converted to audio)
Length of message
Repeats/Updates (frequency of alarms)
Alert Ready is the new national public alerting system designed to deliver critical and potentially life-saving alerts to Canadians through tv, radio and other media.

7. What is “Alert Ready”? A Broadcast Community system that…
works with a defined subset of alerts known as Emergency Alerts
From ECCC, they include…Tornado, Hurricane, Tsunami, Storm Surge, Severe Thunderstorm
If U/S/C settings are high enough
use a flag/marker in CAP to trigger immediate presentation
Use a <parameter> owned and defined by the community to indicate which <info> blocks contain information intended for Immediate Broadcast
The <parameter> is a yes/no explicit setting
defines centralized text to audio <resource> elements
Audio file services over the web for download and use with the message
A middleman creates a common audio resource file for all
defines Emergency Alerting <parameter> customizations for Broadcasters
Tailored text and size limits
Broadcaster and audio rules on abbreviations/acronyms etc.

8. Engineering of Alert Ready (1)
How do the broadcasters know which CAP message <info> blocks are used to interrupt broadcasts with an intrusive presentation? A: They use a marker.
<alert> …
<info>
<parameter>
<valueName>layer:SOREM:1.0:Broadcast_Immediately</valueName>
<value>Yes</value>
</parameter>
</info>
</alert>

9. Engineering of Alert Ready (2)
<valueName>layer:SOREM:1.0:Broadcast_Immediately</valueName>
<value>Yes</value>
layer: identifies this element as a layer element
SOREM: identifies the owner of the layer
1.0: Identifies the version of the layer
Broadcast_Immediately: Identifies which element in the layer this is
Yes: Indicates this <info> block contains information that is
considered Broadcast Immediate
Other SOREM layer <parameters> are included
In Canada, the English and French <info> block equivalents have these layer elements identically set

10. Engineering of Alert Ready (3)
Criteria for SOREM BI parameter to be ‘Yes’
The CAP Canadian Profile event type must be “tornado”
In the future, the other event types we listed will come online
Urgency, Severity, Certainty values set by the forecaster must meet criteria
Criteria values set for each event type are set separately
In an “Update” message, the area referenced must expand into new area
The public has been considered already alerted from previous
Reduces broadcast interrupts in busy multi alerting situations

11. Engineering of Alert Ready (4)
the design of the “yes/no” form of the <parameter> was done on purpose
to accommodate possible future change to the rules of determination, without impacting the current hardware and software use of the “yes/no” value.
allow for the algorithm used to change, if necessary, without affecting the format and structure of the marker used by the recipient’s hardware (if they use the marker)
remove the responsibility from the recipient of CAP as being the one to make the determination of the information qualifying as “Emergency Broadcast” information
explicitly state yes or no rather than making the recipients assume that it is “yes” only when the marker is present with a “yes” value.
allow for operational updates to the algorithm to occur simultaneously across all recipients as the value arrives in the one CAP file that serves all recipients

12. Engineering of Alert Ready (5)
What content in the CAP messages do the broadcasters present? A: The customized Broadcast Text <parameter>.
<parameter>
<valueName>layer:SOREM:1.0:Broadcast_Text</valueName>
<value>At 7:16 p.m. Central Standard Time Friday, Environment Canada has issued a tornado warning for Southwestern Saskatchewan. Extra care and attention should be exercised in and around the following localities: Maple Creek, Cypress Hills Park, Willow Creek, Ravenscrag, Frontier and Claydon. Environment Canada meteorologists are tracking a severe thunderstorm that is possibly producing a tornado. Damaging winds, large hail and locally intense rainfall are also possible. Take cover immediately if threatening weather approaches. Please consult local media for more information.</value>
</parameter>

13. Engineering of Alert Ready (6)
<valueName>layer:SOREM:1.0:Broadcast_Text</valueName>
<value>At 7:16 p.m. Central Standard Time Friday, Environment Canada has issued…</value>
layer: identifies this element as a layer element
SOREM: identifies the owner of the layer
1.0: Identifies the version of the layer
Broadcast_Text: Identifies which element in the layer this is
[Text]: Indicates the text to present to the audience
In Canada, the English and French <info> block equivalents have these layer elements identically set except for the language used.
The Broadcast Text element is present even when the Broadcast Immediately marker is set to no for recipients that want to above and beyond and create value added services.

14. Engineering of Alert Ready (7)
Where can the broadcasters obtain the audio files? A: at the location indicated by the Broadcast Audio <resource> element.
<resource>
<resourceDesc>Broadcast Audio</resourceDesc>
<mimeType>audio/mpeg</mimeType>
<uri>
</resource>

15. Engineering of Alert Ready (8)
<resourceDesc>Broadcast Audio</resourceDesc>
<mimeType>audio/mpeg</mimeType>
<uri>
Broadcast audio: identifies a name of the resource
audio/mpeg: Identifies the mime type of the file
[uri]: Identifies where to go on the internet to download the file
In Canada, the English and French <info> block equivalents have these elements identically set except for the language used.
The Broadcast Audio resource is owned by NAAD (we just create the <resource> block knowing they will create the resource).
They will only create the resource when Broadcast Immediately = yes.
Recipients of our CAP can choose to use it, create their own, or ignore it.

16. Some Challenges Faced (1)
Vendors not ready for broadcaster elements
Sol’n: Copying “Broadcast Text” into <description> element when BI = yes (as a migration strategy for older vendors to make the switch to the <parameter>)
Broadcast clients with different vendors
Sol’n: Ownership of customization

17. Some Challenges Faced (2)
Variety of text to voice and other presentation choices
Sol’n: Common look and feel standards as set up by another agency (SOREM)
Frequency of interrupts
Sol’n: Criteria defined for BI = yes now include message update criteria for 2016 as well as event and alert criteria

18. Questions?
Lawrence Sham Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) August 2016