Location-aware wireless emergency alerts (original) (raw)
Related papers
Rethinking the Future of Wireless Emergency Alerts
Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 2018
The Wireless Emergency Alerting (WEA) service is a standards-based transport and presentation channel used nationwide in the United States. The service can deliver short text warnings to wireless subscribers through a cell broadcast mechanism. For emergency situations in which a broadcast modality and a single, short text message are sufficient to convey information, the WEA service can be efficient and effective. However, the content to be delivered may necessitate more than a single, unchanging short message. In this research, we first examine the WEA service from the perspective of alert originators. We then use the insights gained to explore the efficacy of a range of potential extensions to the service. The extensions mainly address the importance of user context and the ability to create awareness through careful attention to the integrity of the vital information. We evaluated these extensions using a WEA emulation testbed in two public usability trials. We present an analysi...
Optimizing Accessibility of Wireless Emergency Alerts: 2015 Survey Findings
Journal of Technology and Persons with Disabilities , 2016
The Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) system is a free, opt-out, national emergency alerting service that was deployed in 2012 as one component of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning Systems (IPAWS). Since 2012 over 10,000 WEA messages have been transmitted to mobile phones in the U.S. In 2015, a national online survey on WEAs (2015 WEA Survey) was conducted to understand the effectiveness of WEA messages for people with disabilities. The survey collected data on availability, awareness and accessibility of WEA messages, as well as actions taken by the recipient upon receipt. The survey also takes into consideration the type of mobile device used by the respondents. Project researchers hypothesized that greater awareness and exposure to WEA alerts would increase trust and appropriateness of individual responses to alerts. The analysis of the survey data supports the hypothesis. The 2015 WEA national online survey results provided policy and practice insights to improve the intended impact of WEA messages for people with disabilities.
Wireless Emergency Alert messages: Influences on protective action behaviour
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 2019
Alert and warning systems that quickly communicate threat messages to populations at risk have traditionally consisted of broadcast media, shortwave media, sirens and alarms, landline telephones, print media, and even word of mouth. At present, near-universal use and access to smartphone mobile devices, their improved geolocation capacity, and access to broadband and satellite communication infrastructure have allowed for emergency alert messages sent to end users directly to emerge as promising new practices (Glik et al., 2016). In 2012, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) operationalized Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA), a national warning and alert system to notify citizens of imminent threats and significant events via text-like messages sent to mobile devices that are geolocated near the event (Federal Communications Commission, 2018). A WEA message resembles a text message, but is distributed through a wireless channel that remains unaffected during times of network congestion and does not count towards texting limits on the recipient's wireless plan (Bean et al., 2016; Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2016). As originally designed, these messages were to use no more than 90 characters. In regard to content, WEA messages communicate the hazard, the time and location of the hazard, a protective action the recipient should take, and the agency issuing the alert (Bean et al., 2016). With the majority of Americans (77%) now owning mobile devices enabled to carry WEA messages (Pew Research Center, 2017) and the ability to reach large populations quickly and deliver geolocated messages to those at highest risk (National Research Council, 2011), the WEA system offers multiple advantages as a platform for delivering emergency alert messages. However, the deployment of the WEA system and other similar short message service (SMS) or text-based warning systems has outpaced research (Bean et al., 2015; Wood, Bean, Liu, & Boyd, 2015). Determining how to optimally utilize newer communication technologies such as SMS to help people navigate emergencies or disasters needs to be systematically addressed (Mileti & Sorensen, 1990b; Wood et al., 2017). The primary goal of WEA messages is to prompt
The Study of Mobile Public Warning Messages: A Research Review and Agenda
In 2011, the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) began authorizing emergency management officials to broadcast Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) to cellular phones and other mobile devices to help notify people of imminent hazards. WEAs are 90-characters long, geographically targeted emergency messages sent by government alerting authorities through the nation's mobile telecommunications networks, which, for the first time, allow officials to directly notify at-risk publics where they live and work. The use of WEAs has outpaced investigation of their benefits, limitations, and actual and potential consequences. To address this critical gap in scholarship and public understanding, we integrate literature from the fields of public warning, instructional crisis communication, and mobile health communication. Combining these literatures, we outline a theoretical and applied communication research agenda for public warning messages delivered over mobile devices.
Journal of Contingencies Crisis Management, 2022
On August 11, 2021, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) conducted the second national test of the wireless emergency alerts (WEA) system. The first test was conducted in 2018. This study offers an analysis of a nationwide survey (N = 1056) administered in the days immediately following the 2021 national test. The analysis indicates that a substantial number of respondents do not well understand the uses of the WEA system, especially the "National Alert" message class. However, more respondents believe that the "National Alert" message class label would signal more trustworthy information than the "Presidential Alert" message class label, a finding that bolsters the FCC's 2021 decision to abandon the "Presidential Alert" message class label. Despite a lack of accurate understanding of message classes and opt-out options, a substantial number of respondents trust the WEA system to work properly. A clear majority of respondents would appreciate device-based public education materials about the WEA system. The implications of the survey findings for WEA system management and public education are discussed.
Enhancing the Usability of the Commercial Mobile Alert System
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2011
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initiated the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) to inform the general public of emergencies. CMAS utilizes the commercial telecommunications infrastructure to broadcast emergency alert text messages to mobile users in an area affected by an emergency. Because CMAS uses cell broadcast service, the smallest area that CMAS can broadcast messages is a cell site, which is usually quite large for local emergencies. This paper proposes an enhancement that uses CMAS as a transport protocol to distribute local emergency alerts to areas smaller than a cell site. The paper also conducts an investigation of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP), the current emergency protocol standard, and suggests an enhancement to the CAP message structure for CMAS emergency alerts. The viability of the approach is demonstrated using a prototype implementation, which simulates broadcasts of emergency alerts to confined areas such as a city block or an apartment complex.
2011
Location-based services can be broadly defined as any service that provides information pertinent to the current location of an active mobile handset at a specific window of time, regardless of the underlying delivery technology used to convey its information. To date, the short message service and cell broadcast service have been utilised by several countries during emergencies, however the future indicates that these services while cost-effective today, will almost certainly be superseded in the next five to ten years by newer more powerful capabilities. The path forward in location-based emergency services in Australia is given against a backdrop of the E911 experience in the United States, and supplemented with additional mini-cases of other national LBS deployments for emergency services also presented. Of particular importance is how location-based public alerting and warning systems are implemented using legislation or contractual service level agreement instruments or a hybrid approach. Of relevance here is also whether or not governments who deploy LBS for emergencies will carry the cost of the deployment during an emergency or disaster and whether or not carrier participation is mandated by the government. Finally a comprehensive list of general requirements for location-based emergency services is shown. In essence these are recommendations to be adhered to if robust solutions are to be deployed in a nation state.
Emergency Messages in the Commercial Mobile Alert System
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2012
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security initiated the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) to ensure that emergency situations are effectively communicated to the general public. CMAS uses the existing commercial telecommunications infrastructure to broadcast emergency alert text messages to all mobile users in an area affected by an emergency. One of the limitations of CMAS is that the maximum message size is 90 characters of plaintext. This paper proposes an enhancement to CMAS that provides more detailed information within the 90-character text using an encoding technique. The viability of the enhancement is demonstrated using a prototype that generates and broadcasts CMAS emergency alerts to Android phones, on which an emergency response application intercepts, decodes and displays the alerts to users.
Mobile emergency alerting made accessible
International Journal of Emergency Management, 2010
It is critical that next-generation warning systems be developed such that persons with disabilities are given equal access to emergency alerts. This paper discusses research and development activities to provide next-generation, mobile emergency alerting systems to people with disabilities. A framework for prototyping mobile phone-based emergency alert systems and multiple systems built on this framework are presented. Results from field trials indicated support and the need for accessible emergency alert/notification features. The paper concludes that simple accommodations can be made to services and software on mobile devices that greatly increase the accessibility of mobile emergency alerts to persons with disabilities.