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Everbridge Public Warning
2012, 2017, 2021

Description:
Everbridge Public Warning Center is a Smart Hybrid Public Warning alerting for the management of critical events. It combines Cell Broadcast and Location-based SMS alert messages, and provides full support for multi-channel alerting. This allows authorities, emergency response teams, and public safety officials can get an overview of the total number of citizens that will be alerted. This means that Cell Broadcast alerts can be better prepared before a crisis occurs, and potentially impacted area areas can be tuned in order to target the population it needs to reach.
Purposes of the solution:
Improve communication and information sharing
Enhance risk awareness
Efficient response
The solution could help to address the following needs of first responders and authorities:
Communicate with or alert citizens
Improve autonomy, coping abilities, and proactiveness of citizens
Description:

The Everbridge Public Warning Center has two components. First, it consists of cell broadcast that notifies multiple mobile telephone users in a defined area at the same time. Second, it enables location based alert messages for users that subscribed to the Center. These alert messages can be distribute through different channels including SMS, Email, social media or TV.

People can be notfified based on their prior presence in a specific area, even though they left it. Persons entering this zone after the initial alert can also receive a message. Those who are not in their country of residence can also be notified, making it possible to target refugee or tourist populations.

Coping actions:
Enable people to share local knowledge, provide photographs or participate in map making
Information sharing between populations affected by crises and emergency organisations and authorities
Monitoring and surveilling citizens at risk
Information sharing to citizens
Reply to questions by the public
Self-reporting
Psychological and psychosocial aid
Added benefits:
The warning system can generate trust, beacuse of its localized messages and the possibility for subscribers to engage in a dialogue with target populations.
Degree of transferability:
The Public Warning Center is already used in different countries. It can be easily transfered or integrade into different civil protection infrastructures.
Degree of modifiability:
This solution is a standardized platform that cannot easily be modified without participation of the solution provider. It has a clear defined purpose and functionality (broadcasting alert messages to populations in a given area) that does not allow other uses.
Important factors for implementation:
Digital literacy
Geography

Digital literacy

Basic digital literacy is required to operate the system for public authorities.

Geography

Geographical information is needed to test the device in a given area.

Important factors for use:
Demographic characteristics
Digital literacy
Geography
Organisational context
Level of trust
Preparation and planning

Demographic characteristics

Whereas the cell broadcast component targets indiscriminately all cell phone users in a specific area, the location-based alert system is based on a predefined user group based on a subscription to the public warning center. Thus, how these subscriptions are gathered and who subscribed to them determines the effectiveness of the solution.

Organisational context - Preparation and planning

As a public warning system, the Public Warning Center's effectiveness depends on the quality of alerts generated by the public authorities that use the system. Sufficient human resources to generate alert messages and control the quality of the alerts is necessary.

Geography

The cell broadcast system and the localized alert messages need precise geographical information of the affected area. An ill-defined area can leave victims without alerts or provoke unnecessary reactions of populations that are not affected by a crisis event. Thus, to be effective, the system needs access to precise geographical information.

Digital literacy

Apart from the warning, people can engage in two-way communication with public authorities. To do so, access to a cell phone or computer is needed. Basic digital literacy is therefore required.

Level of trust

Populations need to trust the alert message provider. Distrust can lead receivers to misinterpret or ignore the alert messages.

Evaluation from cases:
Challenges:
Further information:
Implementation type:
Alert system
Phase of emergency:
During the crisis
Before the crisis
Solution Provider:
Emergency organisations and services
Public authorities and policy makers
Target user:
Public authorities and policy makers
Citizen groups at risk
First responders
Civil society
Citizens
Record Management:
Created: Sep 15, 2021
Maturity level:
Implemented
Location:
Multiple countries