Emergency Alert and Warning Systems Current Knowledge and Future Research Directions (2018) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Appendix B: Summaries of Research Results from DHS-Supported Principal Investigators
Appendix B: Summaries of Research Results from DHS-Supported Principal Investigators
Pages 91-126
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 91... ...
Although the committee reviewed these statements, these individually authored papers do not necessarily reflect the views of the committee. PUBLIC RESPONSE COGNITIVE MODELING OF THE IMPACT OF WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTS Courtney D
|
From page 92... ...
All subjects were exposed to the same 50 WEA and Twitter messages for each disaster, but the order in which the disasters were presented was changed randomly each time. Subjects responding to Wireless Emergency Alerts and social media messages were more predisposed to share WEA and disaster tweets expressing a dismissive sentiment (i.e., a message that advocates or expresses intent to ignore a disaster alert)
|
From page 93... ...
immediately prior to responding to WEAs and tweets associated with that disaster. Subject brain activity during these videos was analyzed and compared across disasters types to assess how the subjects perceived the disasters.
|
From page 94... ...
These responses appeared to be the most exaggerated when among subjects with the least depressive personality types. Together, this research suggests that the subjects perceived the threat or urgency posed by a flash flood quite differently than other disasters on a physiological level.
|
From page 95... ...
wireless emergency alerts (WEAs) these messages are pushed out through commercial mobile carriers to customers who are located geographically near the hazard, and newer smartphones are "WEA enabled." While the WEA system and other SMS or text based warning systems and messages are coming online rapidly in governmental agencies, universities, and other organizational settings, research about how these systems work has been sparse.
|
From page 96... ...
Major issues addressed in this study include the following: • The impact of receiving simulated WEA messages on psychophysiological arousal • Relative effectiveness of different WEA message lengths (90, 160, 280 characters) and message content • Behaviors observed among recipients of initial simulated WEA messages • The role of personal characteristics, emotions, cognitions, and perceptions among recipients of WEA messages • How physiological arousal, emotions, perception, and behavior interface with the text message and current mobile device technology • Difference in response received in a social rather than a solitary context Study methods included a series of social psychological experiments.
|
From page 97... ...
, emergency management subsystem (that focuses on determining the threat posed by a hazard, and the necessity to formulate and disseminate alert and
|
From page 98... ...
, televisions, and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) that are disseminated via cellular networks to cell phones and other mobile devices as text messages.6,7 These technologies follow a hierarchical approach such that alerts and warnings are delivered from recognized sources (e.g., National Weather Service)
|
From page 99... ...
, land use/cover data, and location and spatial coverage data about alert and warning devices were used to model spatial distribution of vulnerable populations, identify physical risk areas, and determine spatial coverage provided by existing alert technologies. Participatory and action-oriented ethnographic surveys were administered in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese to individuals and EMA personnel to collect primary data about the usability and performance of available warning technologies, format and content of messages, and public perceptions and responses to alert messages and technologies.
|
From page 100... ...
Because social media sites allow public participation and broader outreach, EMA personnel consider this technology to be more effective in motivating the residents to take preparatory actions in response to alert messages. However, due to lack of skilled personnel and the possibility of generating rumors, EMA personnel are reluctant to use social media.
|
From page 101... ...
, which included a majority of respondents from Asian and Hispanic ethnicity, expressed their wish to receive alert and warning messages in languages other than English. These individuals indicated that they use social media and family/friends to receive risk information about hazard events, wanted local EMAs to use social media to disseminate alert messages during hazard events, and believed that social media would allow them to receive messages in different languages.
|
From page 102... ...
Actions should also be taken to increase public knowledge of WEA messages, EMAs' social media presence, and ways to disseminate messages to individuals who do not understand English. COMPREHENSIVE TESTING OF IMMINENT THREAT PUBLIC MESSAGES FOR MOBILE DEVICES Brooke Liu (PI)
|
From page 103... ...
Continued outreach and education about the WEA service may help to speed the rate at which members of the public read and respond to WEAs. Survey findings suggest that some people who receive WEAs do not read them immediately.
|
From page 104... ...
High information map inclusion (specifying the areas affected, areas not affected, and the receiver's location) in 90-character messages had a statistically significant and positive effect on public response outcomes including interpretation and personalization in the case of active shooter and radiological hazards.
|
From page 105... ...
The objective was to increase understanding of how to optimize WEA messages, and the devices on which they are received, in a way that encouraged appropriate protective actions. Additionally, numerous development efforts were undertaken, guided by the technical and engineering team.
|
From page 106... ...
Top Conclusions CACP's research yielded the following conclusions: • People with prior knowledge of WEA were more likely to take immediate action, less likely to be unsure of what action to take, and less likely to make judgments on whether the emergency alert applied to them. Unfortunately, survey respondents without a disability were twice as likely to report having heard of WEA than those respondents with a disability.
|
From page 107... ...
Nonetheless, efforts should be focused on ensuring that WEAcapable devices are developed to have full out-of-the-box accessibility as findings showed that only 8% were fully accessible. • Explore aspects of message content to determine how to make WEAs clear and actionable (i.e., encourage more individuals to take immediate protective actions, rather than spend time verifying information contained in the alert)
|
From page 108... ...
Respondents with a disability are significantly less likely than respondents without a disability to keep their phones powered on while sleeping, resulting in missing WEA messages that might be sent during sleeping hours. OPPORTUNITIES, OPTIONS, AND ENHANCEMENTS FOR THE WIRELESS EMERGENCY ALERTING SERVICE10 Martin Griss, Hakan Erdogmus, and Bob Iannucci CyLab Mobility Research Center, Carnegie Mellon University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Research Activity We consider the essential purpose of the Wireless Emergency Alerting system to be the delivery of the right alert messages to the right recipients at the right time via mobile phones subject to (perceived or real)
|
From page 109... ...
• A majority of the interviewees stated that WEA needs increased geographic precision to deliver alert messages effectively. • The WEA service needs to interface with social media to be relevant.
|
From page 110... ...
Erdogmus, and B Iannucci, 2015, Opportunities, Options and Enhance ments for the Wireless Emergency Alerting Service, Washington, DC: Department of Homeland Security.
|
From page 111... ...
Liu, and M Boyd, 2015, Comprehensive Testing of Imminent Threat Public Messages for Mobile Devices: Final Report, National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism.
|
From page 112... ...
The responses need not come back during the emergency but can be trickled back over days following an alert so as to not create inappropriate network load. GEOTARGETING Wireless Emergency Alerts in Arbitrary Sized Target Areas: Mobile Location Aware Emergency Notification Emre Gunduzhan, Applied Physics Lab, Johns Hopkins University; Bharat Doshi, US Army CERDEC (formerly JHU/APL)
|
From page 113... ...
ASLAT utilizes the location awareness of mobile devices to improve geotargeting accuracy. In ASLAT, WEA alerts are broadcast to an area wider than the target area, but are only displayed to the user if the mobile device is inside the target area.
|
From page 114... ...
of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) Dan Gonzales, RAND Corporation The objectives of this study were to evaluate the public benefit and performance trade-offs of geo-targeted WEA messages using alternative WEA antenna selection methods and to identify the optimal WEA radio frequency geo-targeted areas for imminent threat scenarios.
|
From page 115... ...
While there appears to be no formal WEA message latency requirement, previous industry studies indicate WEA message latency may be as high as 12 minutes. If WEA tornado warnings are delayed by this much then almost all of the lead time provided by NWS tornado warnings would be consumed by time delays within the WEA service infrastructure.
|
From page 116... ...
Many people may not be aware that WEA tornado warnings can be geo-targeted more precisely than sirens, so they may also ignore WEA tornado warnings. To prevent this an education campaign is required to inform the public of the superior geo-targeting performance of the WEA service.
|
From page 117... ...
Shelton, & Jan Osburg, Homeland Security and Defense Center, RAND The complexity of individual behaviors in emergency alerting situations, and the way those behaviors affect the ability of alerts to serve as a protective measure, has long been a topic of interest. With the evolution of new relationships between citizens and technology -- which have affected the utility of legacy alerting modes and the arrival of new options like WEA -- new facets have been added to that complexity.
|
From page 118... ...
In this way, forwarding or communication among individuals about the alert, here via such electronic means as social media, is simply one more type of the communication that has always occurred during milling before citizens make the decision to comply with the alert. The price of this effect is significant increases in out- of-emergency-zone alerting and potentially unnecessary action in response.
|
From page 119... ...
Conclusions and Future Directions Complexities of human behavior -- including both message forwarding and movement -- mean that the use of geo-targeting is not as simple as just restricting the transmission of an alert to the smallest area at risk from an emergency event. The ability to transmit messages to smaller areas -- which is indeed a major technical jump in emergency alerting capability -- requires similar innovation in policy and practice to ensure that emergency managers are outfitted with the best understanding and tools to make the best choices regarding the use of geo-targeted alerts during the critical and time-limited decisions made in the warning phase of natural, technological, or other emergency incidents.
|
From page 120... ...
Research focused on using RF coverage area footprints to improve geo-targeting granularity and accuracy for delivery of Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messages.
|
From page 121... ...
The existing WEA regulatory mandatory requirement for geo-targeting is limited to county-level only. It is therefore recommended that the regulatory requirement be changed to obligate the service providers to offer WEA service with geo-targeting at cell sector level accuracy.
|
From page 122... ...
Such combined technology would provide the best possible result and is recommended as a subject of future experiment. TECHNOLOGIES Accessible Common Alerting Protocol Radio Data System Demonstration: Gulf Coast States Rich Rarey, NPR Labs The goal of this project was to create and demonstrate end-to-end accessible radio emergency alerting using Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)
|
From page 123... ...
The novel design of the RDS Emergency Alert signaling was incorporated into the National Radio Systems Committee standard NRSC-G300-A Radio Data Systems (RDS) Usage (April 2014)
|
From page 124... ...
Commercial Mobile Alert Service (CMAS) Alerting Pipeline Taxonomy and Study of Integration Strategy Considerations for Wireless Emergency Alerts • Best Practices.
|
From page 125... ...
• Operations. AOs need a method for identifying the operational impacts of WEA; they need to ad-dress and manage operational challenges prior to an emergency incident; Good practices can assist in sending rapid, clear, and timely messages; large-scale exercises and training are important to exercise cross-agency and cross-system scenarios; there are crossorganization coordination challenges in issuing WEA messages; there are challenges in synchronizing WEA information with other media channels.
|
From page 126... ...
Trust is a key factor in the effectiveness of the WEA service. AOs must trust WEA to deliver alerts to the public in an accurate and timely manner.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.