1. CAP in Europe CAP 101 - Introducing CAP MeteoAlaram
For CAP In Europe, one of the most interesting systems is MeteoAlarm.
This system, established by EUMETNET, provides up-to-the minute severe weather warnings for 33 European countries, in 35 languages. The information is supplied by national weather services and covers the most popular business and tourist destinations. MeteoAlarm covers a range of potential weather and environmental elements: heavy rain, strong wind, high and low temperatures, snow and ice, and avalanches.
CAP is supported across MeteoAlarm, although only on internal pages for now, not the public-facing pages. I understand that all of these CAP feeds should be publicly accessible later this year.
CAP Introducing CAP

2. CAP in Canada (NAAD System )
CAP Introducing CAP
CAP in Canada (NAAD System )
Pelmorex Alerting System (TV and radio test alerts sent 10 Oct 2012)
Pelmorex distributes Canadian weather warnings as well as other public safety information throughout Canada via the Weather Network and its French equivalent, Meteo Media.
Today, Pelmorex operates the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System (NAAD), which is based on CAP.
The NAAD system is capable of receiving messages from any authorized government agency in Canada and distributing them to TV and radio stations, as well as cable and satellite distributors, throughout Canada.
CAP Introducing CAP

3. CAP in United States (IPAWS)
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CAP in United States (IPAWS)
U.S. FEMA Introduction to IPAWS (Training)
At the Federal level in the United States there is the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), designed for authorized officials to deliver alerts to the U.S. public.
IPAWS is also intended to enhance the ability of Federal, State, territorial, tribal, and local warning authorities to alert their communities of all hazards, via multiple communication pathways.
In IPAWS, alerting authorities can write their own message using tools compliant with open standards. That message is delivered to the IPAWS Open Platform for Emergency Networks (IPAWS OPEN).
IPAWS OPEN authenticates messages and delivers them through multiple communications pathways.
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4. Wireless Emergency Alerts (USA)
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Wireless Emergency Alerts (USA)
Hurricane Sandy Wireless Emergency Alerts (ABC News)
This shows how CAP Wireless Emergency Alerts appear on smart-phones, specifically the Google Android-based Verizon Galaxy Nexus and the Apple iPhone 5. These messages were delivered extensively in October 2012 to people in the US affected by Hurricane Sandy.
CAP Introducing CAP

5. IFRC Universal App Program
CAP Introducing CAP
IFRC Universal App Program
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched the Universal App Program in 2013.
Universal App provides common templates for each IFRC National Society to customize and distribute free mobile apps for needs such as giving first aid, finding shelters, and making emergency preparedness kits. This includes templates for "Hazard Apps" that help people get alerts from authoritative CAP alert news feeds.
Eighteen IFRC National Societies have already implemented the Hazard apps, including: Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, United States, Vietnam, and 12 countries in the Caribbean area. Four other IFRC National Societies have Hazard apps in development: Argentina, Canada, Suriname, and New Zealand.
As of 2015, Universal App is available for 25 languages and development is underway for another 12 languages.
American Red Cross Mobile Apps (example)
CAP Introducing CAP

6. Presentation Outline 101.1 Opportunity and Challenge
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Presentation Outline
101.1 Opportunity and Challenge
101.2 Alerting Authorities
101.3 Benefits of CAP
101.4 Features of a CAP Message
101.5 CAP-enabled Alerting Systems
101.6 Actions for an Alerting Authority
The last topic in this presentation is about
Actions for an Alerting Authority
CAP Introducing CAP

7. Actions for an Alerting Authority
CAP Introducing CAP
Actions for an Alerting Authority
1. Learning Some Basics About CAP
2. Using CAP Sources
3. Considering Tools to Convert Inputs into CAP
4. Acquiring CAP Mapping Tools
5. Implementing a CAP Alert Source
6. Publishing a CAP Alert News Feed
7. Registering an Alerting Authority
8. Choosing an Internet Host for CAP
9. Considering Other Interfaces for CAP Dissemination
10. Developing Public Outreach and Education
In these WMO Guidelines, there are 10 actions suggested for an alerting authority that may be implementing CAP:
1. Learning Some Basics About CAP
2. Using CAP Sources
3. Considering Tools to Convert Inputs into CAP
4. Acquiring CAP Mapping Tools
5. Implementing a CAP Alert Source
6. Publishing a CAP Alert News Feed
7. Registering an Alerting Authority
8. Choosing an Internet Host for CAP
9. Considering Other Interfaces for CAP Dissemination
10. Developing Public Outreach and Education
In this presentation, I will expand on just a few of these.
CAP Introducing CAP

8. Example CAP Message CAP 101 - Introducing CAP
First we’ll look at Learning Some Basics About CAP
The most fundamental technical feature of CAP is that it defines its standard message format using eXtensible Markup Language (XML).
Again we see a CAP alert as shown in its XML representation.
CAP Introducing CAP

9. Alert with Stylesheet CAP 101 - Introducing CAP
To make a CAP alert easier for a human visitor to read, we add a line to the CAP alert to reference a “Stylesheet”.
This stylesheet transforms the XML document into HTML so it is easy for humans to read. Yet, the XML representation is still there so it can used by other processes, such as alert aggregators, text-to-speech processors, and so on.
Here I’ve applied a stylesheet to the sample message. You can see this makes the CAP alert nicely formatted for users who see the alert through a Web browser.
CAP Introducing CAP

10. Structure of a CAP Message
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Structure of a CAP Message
CAP Messages contain:
One “alert”, top-level element
One or more “info” sub-elements
One or more “info/resource” sub-elements
On or more “info/area” sub-elements
Here again we see the basic structure of a CAP message. Notice that there are one or more “info” elements in a single CAP message. In Canada, a single alert needs to provide text in both French and English. So, a typical Canadian CAP alert has two “info” blocks—one in English and one in French.
Within any “info” element there can be multiple “resource” elements and there can be multiple “area” elements as well.
CAP Introducing CAP

11. Filtering and Routing Criteria
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Filtering and Routing Criteria
Event Categories (Geo, Met, Safety, Security, Rescue, Fire, Health, Env, Transport, Infra, Other)
Urgency: Timeframe for responsive action (Immediate, Expected, Future, Past, Unknown)
Severity: Level of threat to life or property (Extreme, Severe, Moderate, Minor, Unknown)
Certainty: Probability of occurrence (Very Likely, Likely, Possible, Unlikely, Unknown)
Recall that CAP has a variety of “coded values”. These include:
Event Categories (Geo, Met, Safety, Security, Rescue, Fire, Health, Env, Transport, Infra, Other)
Urgency: Timeframe for responsive action
Severity: Level of threat to life or property
Certainty: Probability of occurrence
CAP Introducing CAP

12. CAP Standard Specification
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CAP Standard Specification
Here we see all of the CAP element names, with mandatory elements shown in bold.
This model of the CAP message is defined in the official specification for CAP, which in this case is CAP version 1.1.
You will find very useful detail about each of the elements in the CAP standard specification, especially in the Data Dictionary part of that document.
CAP Introducing CAP

13. Actions for an Alerting Authority
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Actions for an Alerting Authority
3.1. Learning Some Basics About CAP
3.2. Using CAP Sources
3.3. Considering Tools to Convert Inputs into CAP
3.4. Acquiring CAP Mapping Tools
3.5. Implementing a CAP Alert Source
3.6. Publishing a CAP Alert News Feed
3.7. Registering an Alerting Authority
3.8. Choosing an Internet Host for CAP
3.9. Considering Other Interfaces for CAP Dissemination
3.10. Developing Public Outreach and Education
Now we’ll turn to Using CAP Sources.
CAP Introducing CAP

14. Using CAP Sources CAP 101 - Introducing CAP
Using CAP Sources is easy when the alerting authority has published their alerts as a news feed on the Internet.
All you need is Internet access and a browser.
For instance, let’s say you work in emergency management in the shipping industry. You can find "Watches, Warnings, or Advisories for the U.S. Marine Zones" in CAP format at this news feed.
CAP Introducing CAP

15. CAP News Feed (MS Internet Explorer)
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CAP News Feed (MS Internet Explorer)
Click here to subscribe
Major Web browsers have a built-in function for subscribing to news feeds. This is easily applied to CAP alerts in the news feed format.
Here we see the same CAP news feed, as it appears to a visitor using Microsoft Internet Explorer.
viewed with Microsoft Internet Explorer
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16. CAP News Feed (Firefox)
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CAP News Feed (Firefox)
Click here to subscribe
And now we see again the same CAP news feed, as it appears to a Web visitor using the Firefox browser.
viewed with Firefox browser
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17. Actions for an Alerting Authority
CAP Introducing CAP
Actions for an Alerting Authority
1. Learning Some Basics About CAP
2. Using CAP Sources
3. Considering Tools to Convert Inputs into CAP
4. Acquiring CAP Mapping Tools
5. Implementing a CAP Alert Source
6. Publishing a CAP Alert News Feed
7. Registering an Alerting Authority
8. Choosing an Internet Host for CAP
9. Considering Other Interfaces for CAP Dissemination
10. Developing Public Outreach and Education
Now let’s turn to:
Considering Tools to Convert Inputs into CAP
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18. Diverse Information Sources
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Diverse Information Sources
Hazard threat data and alerts
Alerting messages
Decision process
input from devices as well as people
services: news wires, weather notices, seismic monitoring, traffic reports...
technologies: telephone, radio, Blackberry, , Internet..
forms: raw data, text, audio, maps, pictures, video...
Today, any operational alerting process deals with a wide variety of information inputs. Information relevant to hazard threats comes in from many sources, including sensors as well as people.
Here is a simple view of the emergency alerting process, centred on an alerting authority and having three parts:
Hazard threat data and alerts are communicated as input;
The alerting authority decides on appropriate actions;
Alerting messages are then disseminated to various audiences (other authorities, responders, general public, and so on).
The information inputs are communicated with many technologies (telephone, radio, Internet, and so on). These inputs take many forms (raw data, text, audio, maps, pictures, video, and so on). These different forms are often specific to the type of information service (news wires, weather notices, seismic monitoring, traffic reports, and so on).
CAP Introducing CAP

19. Converting Inputs into CAP
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Converting Inputs into CAP
police and fire
CAP
medical/health services
social services
water and public works
airport authority and port authority
One benefit of the CAP-enabled approach is that processing can be simplified by converting diverse inputs into the CAP format.
Managers of systems with content relevant for public alerting should be encouraged to add software adaptors so their system could interoperate with CAP-enabled systems.
Today, those managers are usually in government agencies, and government-chartered agencies such as police, fire, medical/health, social services, water, public works, airport authority, port authority, energy, and telecommunications. It makes sense to encourage all of these agencies to implement CAP news feeds.
Alerting authorities should also explore arrangements for alerts in CAP format to be originated from public or private utilities, alerting for situations such as planned outages of power and water, traffic disruptions, etc.
As sources become CAP-enabled, their published CAP alerts may be initially restricted to the emergency management community. But eventually most CAP news feeds could be publicly accessible as well.
energy utilities
telecommunications utilities
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20. Example Input Interface
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Example Input Interface
Earth Networks Dangerous Thunderstorm Alert on Earth Networks CAP feed when severe weather threatens, based on total lightning.
Here we see an input sensor being used to trigger a CAP alert.
The sensor picks up radio emissions from lightning (in-cloud and cloud-to-ground).
Then, the Earth Networks Dangerous Thunderstorm Alert is posted to an Earth Networks CAP feed when there is an high frequency of lightning detected.
This method of sensing lightning allows advanced notice of the threat of severe weather moving into a particular area.
CAP Introducing CAP