Emergency telecom cluster, an alternative to Tampere Convention?
I attended the Social Media and Disaster Relief Conference organized by the Indian arm of the Center for Strategic and International Studies hoping to learn something. The existence of the Emergency...
View ArticleSri Lanka produces one of the world’s earliest GSM based disaster warning...
Sri Lanka has always been prone to natural disasters; more commonly droughts, floods and landslides. However, the 2004 Tsunami caused the most devastation we had witnessed in a very, very long time....
View ArticleDisaster warning: Odd and peculiar department
The Times of India has many critics on account of its pursuit of moolah, but still, it is a serious newspaper. UNISDR is a serious organization that is part of the UN system. One assumes the Senior...
View ArticleCanada makes cell broadcasting mandatory on wireless networks
We at LIRNEasia have been promoting cell broadcasting for a long time. It is immune to congestion, message over it can be specific to location; and it does not require prior registration of numbers. It...
View ArticleWhy is it so difficult to forecast rain?
As Sri Lanka is drying itself out after yet another disaster, people are beginning to ask what went wrong and what could be done better in the future. Some of the comments are not fair, for example the...
View ArticleTechnology to better predict rain from storms
The government predicted rainfall more than 50 mm. Over 500 mm of rain fell. Technically, they were not wrong (550 mm is within the range of “more than 50 mm), but obviously, forecasts like this might...
View ArticleMea culpa on Sri Lanka’s weather forecasting
I saw a response to an RTI request from the Department of Meteorology on Twitter and did not adequately check its veracity. As a result, I unfairly described the forecasting capabilities of the...
View ArticleOf concern, but easier solutions are available for tsunami warning
The warning towers erected after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami are said to be dysfunctional, according to Reuters: Thailand’s warning system includes warning towers, a network of detection buoys in the...
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#APrIGF2017 – Reconnecting the Disconnected in Disasters
Naveed Haq, with ISOC Development “Panic and chaos are inherent in crises. During the critical golden 72 hours the public need ICTs to mitigate the panic but we are still ten years behind and have...
View ArticleChallenges of utilizing insurance as part of the disaster risk mitigation...
We have been thinking about insurance in the context of disasters ever since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Recently, we discussed insurance as part of the work we did for ESCAP on resilient ICT...
View ArticleInsurance seen as vital element of disaster risk reduction
The role of insurance and zoning was discussed at a video conference we organized shortly after the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. I wrote up some of the insights that were shared in my Choices column...
View ArticleLessons for disaster warning from Hawai’i fiasco
Every disaster and every false-warning incident is a learning opportunity. We have done these kinds of assessments after many disasters and false warnings sometimes at great length, as in the case of...
View ArticleAnother justification for cell broadcasting
Here is what happened when someone in a probably tsunami impact zone received a warning from the authorities in British Columbia, Canada, a few days back: Meg Devlin, who lives near Victoria’s Gorge...
View ArticleThe role of data in disaster risk reduction and in post-disaster phase
I was invited to speak at the launch of the UNDP-funded DataSmart initiative of the Ministry of Disaster Management, where some work is being done by Sarvodaya Fusion. I talked about the need not only...
View ArticleSmartphones for early warning of earthquakes. Overnight!
We generally credit smartphones for making camera and audiovisual players irrelevant. But we often forget that every smartphone is also, by default, a GPS receiver. Quite correct, if not precise,...
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