This report assesses existing monitoring/early warning systems for environmental threats (geological hazards, hydro-meteorological hazards, epidemics and food insecurity). It identifies current gaps and needs, and suggests guidelines for developing a global multi-hazard early warning system.
Effective early warning systems integrate four elements: risk analysis; monitoring and predicting location and intensity of the disaster; communicating alerts to authorities and to those potentially affected; and responding to the disaster. Failure of any part of the system will imply failure of the whole system.
Early warning technologies have greatly benefited from recent advances in communication and information technologies and an improved knowledge of natural hazards and the underlying science. Nevertheless many gaps still exist in early warning technologies and capacities, especially in the developing world. A lot more needs to be done to develop a global scale multi-hazard system.
A globally comprehensive early warning system could be based on the many existing systems and capacities. It would not be a single, centrally-planned and -commanded system, but a networked and coordinated group of nationally owned and operated systems. Recommendations include the following:
- Fill existing gaps: Technological, geographical, and capacity gaps exist, in addition to operational gaps for slow-onset hazards in the monitoring, communication and response phases. More effective and timely decision-making is also needed for slow-onset hazards.
- Build capacity: It is critical to develop basic early warning infrastructures and capacities in parts of the developing world most affected by disasters. It is also important to promote education programmes on disaster mitigation and preparedness, and to integrate disaster mitigation plans into the broader development context.
- Bridge the gaps between science and decision making, and strengthen coordination and communication: The major challenge is to ensure that early warnings result in prompt responses by governments and potentially the international community. This requires that information be effectively disseminated in an accessible form down to the end user. This is achievable by adopting standard formats and easy-to-use tools for information dissemination, such as interactive maps, emails, and SMS. The adoption of standard formats (such as the Common Alerting Protocol) for disseminating and exchanging information must be promoted. This would allow the merging of messages from several early warning systems into a single multi-hazard message format.
