Emergency alert and warning systems : current knowledge and future research directions / The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Emergency communication systems--United States.

Emergency communication systems.

Public safety radio service--United States.

Public safety radio service.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiv, 128 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Washington, DC : The National Academies Press, [2018]

Summary:

Following a series of natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, that revealed shortcomings in the nation's ability to effectively alert populations at risk, Congress passed the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act in 2006. Today, new technologies such as smart phones and social media platforms offer new ways to communicate with the public, and the information ecosystem is much broader, including additional official channels, such as government social media accounts, opt-in short message service (SMS)-based alerting systems, and reverse 911 systems; less official channels, such as main stream media outlets and weather applications on connected devices; and unofficial channels, such as first person reports via social media. Traditional media have also taken advantage of these new tools, including their own mobile applications to extend their reach of beyond broadcast radio, television, and cable. Furthermore, private companies have begun to take advantage of the large amounts of data about users they possess to detect events and provide alerts and warnings and other hazard-related information to their users. More than 60 years of research on the public response to alerts and warnings has yielded many insights about how people respond to information that they are at risk and the circumstances under which they are most likely to take appropriate protective action. Some, but not all, of these results have been used to inform the design and operation of alert and warning systems, and new insights continue to emerge. Emergency Alert and Warning Systems reviews the results of past research, considers new possibilities for realizing more effective alert and warning systems, explores how a more effective national alert and warning system might be created and some of the gaps in our present knowledge, and sets forth a research agenda to advance the nation's alert and warning capabilities.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

Acknowledgment of Reviewers

Contents

Summary

1 Understanding Public Response to Alerts and Warnings

Results from Earlier Decades of Research

Recent Research

2 Building an Integrated Alert and Warning Ecosystem

Need for an Integrated Alert and Warning Ecosystem

Properties of an Integrated Alert and Warning System

Evolution of an Integrated Alert and Warning Ecosystem

3 A Research Agenda

Public Response to Alerts and Warnings

Post-Alert Feedback and Monitoring for Emergency Organizations

Technical Challenges and Their Impact

4 Challenges to Building Better Alerting Systems

Adoption of Alert and Warning Systems

Ever Changing Technology

Coupling Research with Emergency Managers and the Private Sector

Appendixes

A Current Alert and Warning Systems and Their Characteristics

B Summaries of Research Results from DHS-Supported Principal Investigators

C Briefers to the Committee.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780309467407

0309467403

9780309467384

0309467381