A drawback is the poor public awareness of the phenomena and what to do if they occur. The Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management (IMGW) has now started works on creating the most effective Poland communication model / system of dangerous hydrospheric and atmospheric phenomena with the use of new tools which are the New Media.
Works on the creation of an effective communication system were initiated on the study of public awareness about the dangerous phenomena, that is whether people understand them and how they understand and then about the shortcomings in communicating them to the public and decision-makers to protect against extraordinary phenomena. The aim of the research is to understand the needs, i.e. what messages are expected, if they are clear, what language should be used and how they should be communicated:
- a study will show advantages and disadvantages of existing tools; - it will demonstrate a potential need for additional other tools; - then one might be tempted to develop criteria for evaluation of scenarios to inform on extraordinary phenomena, estimation of criteria weights and their selection.
As a result of these measures the best information system on dangerous meteorological and hydrological phenomena can be developed and selected. A scenario of communication and information about this phenomenon can be suggested and an appropriate tool identified. Currently IMGW is implementing various communication tools and is testing their effectiveness. The first step was to create a warning system via mobile phones.
Case study Text Messaging and Mobile Apps as a tool in warning against extraordinary hazards
IMGW-PIB operates a one-platform system with integrated Text Messaging and Mobile Apps which alerts the society against severe storms. For two years, IMGW-PIB has been experimenting with various technologies that ensure protection of lives, livelihoods and property against extreme weather events. While people are in motion, the mobile apps track their position and store information in the central database. This information is used to send alerts to users who are in the storm affected area. The delivery product depends on the type of the mobile phone in use. Smartphone users will receive notifications while regular users will receive text messages. The system is based on meteorological information derived from numerical models, satellite imagery, radar data and telemetry network. IMGW-PIB generates alerts before the storm impacts; and since that moment a sophisticated technology is starting to inform people located within the risk area about the incoming danger.
Keywords Alerts, GSM, Apps, Notifications, SMS, Localization
Introduction Text Messaging and Mobile Apps are elements of severe storm alarm system dedicated for urban and rural areas in Poland. Parts of the system are being developed since 2011. At present, the system works in production mode. Every month the system sends about 150,000 text messages and simultaneously also notifications for almost 100,000 smart phone users.
The system is designed for simultaneous delivery of messages to multiple users in a specified area. Whereas, the Short Message Service-Point to Point (SMS-PP) is a one-to-one and one-to-a-few service, this system is a one-to-many geographically focused messaging service via text messages or via notifications. The system is supported by 2G, 3G, 3.5G and 4G GSM standard and LTE. Some mobile operators had plans to use SMS Broadcast for communicating the area code of the antenna cell to the mobile user for nationwide or citywide alerting, weather reports, mass messaging, location based news, etc. However, they have had always problems in integrating the online localization platform. After the year 2010, the online localization systems were launched smartphone era has broken the limits of localisation. Technology allows apps producers to collect localisation information and to use such data with user acceptance. Motivation Poland is affected by flooding almost every year, especially in the south of the country. For the last four years IMGW has been working intensively with prevention tools which can help to minimize damage.
Text Messaging and Mobile Apps as a part of severe storm alarm system for urban and rural areas in Poland was the answer to this need.
During implementation phase some issues were observed which can be divided into two groups: internal and external.
External issues: people do not understand alerts; people do not react properly to warnings.
Internal issues: warnings are too general; forecasters do not want to prepare warnings for small areas; alert prediction time is too short.
Based on the above, IMGW has set in motion internal and external changes. The conclusion was that the system should warn people in the easiest possible way just to deliver information on the mobile phone screen. Accumulation of warning areas can influence the system's accuracy. Today, there are 72 warning areas in all the country in comparison to 22 areas one year ago. However, nowadays alerts are more accurate because there are various communication channels.
Architecture of the System Software components of the system are generally developed in open source technologies. The front end web services use JavaScript, AJAX and PhP. Reporting part and localization module is based on Drupal CMS and Kohana framework. The whole system is located in MS Azzure icloud environment. The operator part of application is built in Java. Systems use relational databases MySQL. MySQL which is an open source database used in many applications is perfect for this project. There are however limits to how far the performance can scale on a single server. Therefore, on larger scales, multi-server MySQL
- Indicates paper has been withdrawn from meeting
- Indicates an Award Winner