The following article appeared in the
January 2007 issue of the IAEM Bulletin. This is a condensed
version of the “Early
Warning Systems: Reframing the Discussion” article.
Emergency Managers
Should Lead Efforts
to Improve Early Warning Capabilities
Karen Faerber
Philip Hall
January 2007
Contents
PUTTING EARLY WARNING INTO PERSPECTIVE
As a
result of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), a
rich body of literature now exists on early warning and a variety of successful
local initiatives are in place. What has not resulted is coordinated,
collaborative international action.
We
believe this is because the international community has lost sight of the fact
that early warning is the integration and extension of existing emergency
management capabilities and that the effort to establish any early warning capability
must be led by emergency managers, not by scientists and technologists.
PUTTING EARLY WARNING INTO PERSPECTIVE
Emergency
management brings together the everyday endeavors of private, voluntary and
government agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to deal with the
spectrum of emergency needs. Through this coordinated effort, emergency
managers make use of existing tools and processes, all of which are used to
provide specialized services to the community on a day-to-day basis, to help
communities deal with hazard risks.
The word
“early” in early warning emphasizes the need to improve and optimize not only
the science and technology, but also the human capability throughout the entire
range of interactions that support emergency management. Science and technology
must continually improve the ability to accurately detect, interpret and report
a hazard event at the earliest possible moment. The community must, through its
vigilance and participation, augment and confirm the information from the
scientific or technical systems with local knowledge and observations (which in
many circumstances will be the community’s only early warning capability).
Emergency managers also need communications technology infrastructure that
integrates with traditional methods of communication, so that they can send emergency
information out to every community and person at risk.
Emergency
managers govern the early warning capability in accordance with the overall emergency
management communications strategy, through which emergency managers agree to
the terms of and manage relationships with their stakeholders. This strategy
identifies appropriate interfaces with strategic service providers whose
support is crucial if the early warning capability is to be effective.
Strategic service providers include scientists, engineers, infrastructure
providers, public officials, community emergency services and the media.
Emergency
managers must actively lead, engaging both the community and the strategic service
providers in the development of the early warning capability. They must
strengthen and sustain that capability through a continuous cycle of review, assessment
and improvement activities, again with the community and with the strategic
service providers.
Emergency
managers must take the lead in dealing with two recurring areas of conflict.
·
Scientists often fear that false or inaccurate warnings might result in
lack of faith in subsequent warnings and loss of credibility. Emergency
managers must collaborate with science and the media to inform the community
and to establish realistic expectations of the extent and limits of scientific knowledge
with respect to the hazards that threaten the community. An informed community,
with realistic expectations, can accept false alarms without becoming apathetic
or devaluing the professional capabilities of the scientists.
·
A second area of conflict involves public officials who often resist
initiating or escalating within the hazard response plan because they are
concerned that information and warnings about hazard events will create panic
within the community. Rational fear – fear of situations that are liable to
occur – generally motivates people to engage in constructive actions to deal
with the situation they fear. Emergency managers must collaborate with public officials
and the media to provide factual information about the risks the community
faces and its options for mitigation and management of those risks. An informed
community is unlikely to panic, and adverse economic reactions will be directly
related to the hazard event itself.
The
international emphasis on early warning systems has shifted the focus from
emergency management to science and technology, creating the impression that scientists
and technologists should be leading the development of a global early warning
capability. While there are important benefits to be gained from improving our detection
and interpretation systems for natural hazards, these benefits cannot be fully
realized unless the systems are integrated into the all-hazards emergency management
capability. Adopting an all-hazards approach, in which local needs are clearly
identified and provided for in national and regional policies, generates
synergies and efficiencies that can – and must – be leveraged in international strategic
planning for early warning capabilities.
To do
this, emergency managers need to strengthen existing, and establish additional,
international collaboration and exchange of information mechanisms on early warning
capabilities, just as science has done with early warning system technology. Emergency
management must assume the role of “champion” and actively lead the dialogue at
all levels, working with the community at risk and strategic service providers
to develop effective local, national, regional and international early warning
capabilities.
The full
text of this article can be found at www.faerberhall.com/commentary.htm.
Faerber Hall ©2007