Abstract
Tsunamis are one of the most dangerous and destructive natural disasters: countries that experience a tsunami event are likely to undergo, after the immediate destruction of the regions nearby the coast, several secondary effects, for example epidemic outbreaks. Thus, early warning systems able to timely advise the authorities and the population of an imminent tsunami are valuable tools that should be implemented in any coastal region with high risk of seismic events. In this paper we present the experience that we gained during a Table Top exercise aimed at testing the effectiveness of an SMS – based Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS). SMS showed to be a valuable additional support channel for propagating the alarm, even though some drawbacks were identified e.g. lack of reliability, formal procedures and follow-through training that must be carefully taken in account. Experience gained will be used in an operational exercise scheduled October 2011 and potentially pave the way for including SMS early warning in disaster management.
This work was supported by the European Commission, Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Directorate under contract 070401/2009/534360/SUB/A3: “POSEIDON: Earthquake followed by Tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea”.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Kumar, T.S., Kumar, C.P., Nayak, S.: Performance of the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System. In: International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science, Kyoto, Japan, vol. XXXVIII, part 8 (2010)
Lauterjung, J.: Installation of a tsunami early warning system in the Indian Ocean. In: Proceedings of the 13th Annual ACM International Workshop on Geographic Information Systems (GIS 2005), p. 1. ACM, New York (2005)
Meissen, U., Voisard, A.: Increasing the Effectiveness of Early Warning via Context-aware Alerting. In: Proceedings of ISCRAM Conference, Washington, DC, USA (May 2008)
Malizia, A., et al.: CAP-ONES: An Emergency Notification System for all. In: Proceedings of the 6th International ISCRAM Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden (May 2009)
Mitchell, H., Johnson, J., La Force, S.: Wireless Emergency Alerts: An Accessibility Study. In: Proceedings of the 7th International ISCRAM Conference, Seattle, USA (May 2010)
Pau, L.F., Simonsen, P.: Emergency messaging to general public via public wireless networks. In: Proceedings of ISCRAM Conference, Washington, DC, USA (2008)
Evangelia, T., et al.: Risk Assessment Study based of the 365AD Earthquake to Drive a Civil Protection Exercise. ERCIM News (April 2010), http://ercim-news.ercim.eu/en81/special/risk-assessment-study (visited on July 11, 2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 ICST Institute for Computer Science, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering
About this paper
Cite this paper
Lagani, V., Kontogiannis, V., Argyropaidas, P., Chronaki, C. (2012). Use of SMS for Tsunami Early Warnings at a Table Top Exercise. In: Kostkova, P., Szomszor, M., Fowler, D. (eds) Electronic Healthcare. eHealth 2011. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 91. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29262-0_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-29261-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-29262-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)