Spot contributions to policy paper wins first prize at ITU conference

We presented our paper on the “intricacies of implementing the ITU-T X.1303 recommended warning standard for cross-agency situational-awareness in Myanmar, Philippines, and Maldives at ITU Kaleiderscope (2016). It is an IEEE conference sponsored by the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB). The paper was not technical in the strict sense but discussed ICT policy relevant findings that the conference reviewers perceived important for the standardization process and the standards community. We were awarded “the best paper”. READ THE FULL STORY.

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Timor-Leste emergency communications: fact finding mission

The workshop on an Emergency Communications Plan for Timor-Leste was hosted by Autoridade Nacional de Communicações (ANC), also known as the National Communications Authority. I participated in the capacity of an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Emergency Communications Expert. Day 1 (27th Apr) of the workshop was attended by 40 participants from various emergency management and disaster mitigation organizations. Nine organizations from Government, Nongovernmental, and Private organizations presented their cases on critical infrastructure and information exchange platforms. Discussions highlighted frequency, safety, human capacity, and continuity related issue and were brought to ANC's attention.

Access my workshop slides

I was in Dili, 24 Apr. through 02 may. On Saturday 25th, a downtown fire burned down two shops. The fire department responding to the event were unable to save the two shops. The general opinion was an unsatisfactory one towards the City of Dili's Fire brigade. A reason they didn't take part in our workshop? They certainly could have taken full advantage of the forum to discuss the strengths and weakness of the efforts and collaboration and coordination with other agencies present at the event; a missed rare opportunity.

Alue farms to Dili markets

Staff affiliated with communications department of the Timor-Leste Red Cross, National Disaster Management Directorate, Ministry of Health, Maritime agencies, and Commercial Aviation requested ANC to act on a set of suggested regulatory issues. The three Telcos operating in Timor-Leste: Timor Telekom, Telemore, and Telecomcell were keen in participating in a pilot that involves investigating interoperability and warning techniques. A strong Internet connection for the National Emergency Operation Center (NEOC) and a common SMS database for focal point warnings were suggested as starting Corporate Social Responsibility activity by the Telcos. The Ministry of Health expressed the need to lower tariffs or subsidize them to support emergency medicine and public health.

Day 2 and 3 of the workshop was focused on warning and response aspects for interagency coordination, data collection, and information exchange. Participants were exposed to best practices; especially around the EDXL-CAP and EDXL-SITREP standards. They involved in several hands on exercises designed for a participatory approach to extracting issues on topics around the warning and response functions. Other discussions were on the lack of procedures and mandated organizations upholding their responsibilities.

The ANC and ITU team visited the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) managed by the National Police, National Defense Joint Forces/PNTL/Civil, and National Disaster Management Directorate (NDMD) operated NEOC. Police headquarters and NDMD have an inventory of VHF communications equipment. They are unused either on reasons of frequency allocation or the significant shortcoming of skilled resource person to operationalize the equipment. To supplement the shortcomings in the systems ought to be functioning, organizations have developed make-shift workarounds until such time they become a priority. For example, the dysfunctional Meteorological department is focusing their efforts on establishing a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian meteorological services.

Fishing life on the beaches of Dili

There is very little or no communications system integration and adoption of interoperability to enhance system automation and decision support. At present, the NDMD EOC is quite motivated in developing and implementing systems and procedures. They already have an operational Sahana-based incident reporting system, namely the Timor-Leste Disaster Information System. The NDMD managed NDOC database is a platform for collecting disaster data. The work flow is such that data written on paper forms at the Suco (village) and then manually aggregated, once again on paper forms, at the sub-districts administrations are eventually digitized at the District level. Unreliable electricity and Internet supplies are problem for sustaining continuity of the IT systems. Working language are Parotugese and the Tetun; however, a larger portion of the population (> 50% illiteracy) do not speak, read, or write Portuguese. Even at the grassroots, English is easier to communicate.

Timorese along the Dili beaches

Timor-Leste is a new country with systems evolving at a minimal pace. Developing infrastructure such as roads, airports, and maritime ports are at the tip of the iceberg. Economy heavily relies on oil. Approximately 70% of the households dependent on farming. The country is mostly effected by flash floods and droughts. Violence in the homes and public health are other frequent issues the society faces. Tsunamis and Cyclones are seldom events but can be destructive, given their exposure.

Overview Emergency Communications Practices, Methods, and Expected Outcomes from Nuwan Waidyanatha

Embarking on a study of ICT use in Indian Emergency Communications

Image is from DownToEarth: http://tinyurl.com/l6tqhpa

2014 has been a busy year for Indian Emergency Managers. The Uttarakhan massive landslide, Jamu-n-Kashmir floods, Mumbai Stampede, GAIL gas pipeline explosion, Cyclone Hudhud are few of the many disasters they faced this year. Communications failed during these major crises. The Citizens and the Crisis Managers were disconnected without any telecommunications. Responders had no way of contacting remote Taluks and Hamlets to assess their situation. Local Officials couldn't contact State of Central Government to share their distress.

Realizing the shortcomings in the robustness of telecommunications in serving crises the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) of the Government of India and the International of Telecommunication Union are committed to intervene. I am honoured to be granted the opportunity to lead the study in determining the gaps and then recommending best-practices that can be leveraged in improving the Indian emergency communications.

The objectives are:

1. Evaluate the current situation of ICT use in Emergency Telecommunications; specifically in the preparedness and response components of a Disaster Management cycle.
2. Suggest optimal use of satellite and terrestrial systems to developed redundant stream-less communications by first assessing available ICT resources and processes to effectively meet the challenges.
3. Create ecosystems where investments made for deploying telecommunications infrastructures for economic development are also used for disaster response for public safety.
4. Challenges to bring in coordinated approach from different government departments, Service providers, private sector, intergovernmental organizations for effectiveness and quick response.
5. Recommend any areas that require capacity building, systems development, and procedures for resilience. Thereafter, provide best practices that would support those recommendations.

A primary activity is a mission to India. The meetings in New Delhi are scheduled from December 11th to December 18th and in Bangalore (State of Karanataka) from 19th to the 22nd December, 2014. Interviewees are planned with Resource Persons affiliated Community-based Organizations, United Nations Agencies, Private Entities, Special Interest Groups, and Government Organizations. The mission findings will be recorded in mission report.

Spot-On building a CAP-enabled software for ITU-D

The International Telecommunication Union - Development Sector has procured Spot On Solutions to supply a customized software. It is specifically designed to foster the wider-scale adoption of the ITU-T X.1303 recommended CAP standard. The software, to be delivered and abbreviated as CAPITUS, would be utilized by ITU in their emergency communication capacity development activities. Thus, advancing Member States with the adoption of CAP for life-saving communication. Moreover, the CAPITUS resources would facilitate multi-agency all-hazards all-media warning, alerting, and situational-awareness capabilities to effectively coordinate crises.

The potential of the proposed CAP-enabled software was demonstrated by Spot-On Experts at an ITU Development sector organized workshop, in Thailand. The delegates, attending the workshop, perceived the CAP ease-of-use and utility through a series of hands-on exercises. Participants experienced the efficiency gains of the single entry of a message being simultaneously disseminated through multiple technologies to multiple recipients. They acknowledged that the CAP message was consistent removing ambiguity that may, otherwise, lead to false responses. Moreover, they realized the capabilities of brokering multi-agency publishers and subscribers for improved situational-awareness.

As part of a two phase implementation, we are proposing to deploy the CAP-enabled software along with self-guided operating procedures to be made available for Member States to utilize in their adoption. The software and on-line training aids would be offered through a web portal. Authorized members can access the ITU branded software, first to trial the software then download the software to implement in one's own organization. Self-learning aids (manuals and video), self-guided exercises with links to additional resources on best practices would be part of the self contained comprehensive module.

During the first phase, Spot-On will operationalize the CAP-enabled software. The second phase would involve providing the comprehensive on-line training regime for both ITU system administrators, ITU trainers, and Member States. We have begun working on the first phase objective of a customized ITU CAP-enabled software, namely CAPITUS.

APT Manila meeting leading to Sahana Center of Excellence at AIT

The International Telecommunication Union - Development Sector (ITU-D) invited me to present on an "Introduction to Operationalizing the Common Alerting Protocol (ITU-T X.1303) Standard". The presentation was made at the 4th Asia Pacific (AP) Telecommunity on Disaster Management / Communications; held at the SMX Convention Centre, Manila, Philippines, from 23-25 July 2013.

The panel was Chaired by: Dr. Eun-Ju Kim (Regional Director, ITU Regional Office for AP), Mr. Wisit Atipayakoon (ITU Regional Officer for AP), D. Manluz Hazarika (AIT Geoinformatics Center Assistant Director), and myself. The panel topic termed as the "ITU Session".

A noteworthy historic event was meeting Manzul who is affiliated with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Goeinformatics Centre. His presentation was on: Applications of Geoinformatics and Space Technologies for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). Besides speaking of CAP, I also spoke about the Sahana Disaster Management Software, specifically the developments of the Sahana CAP Broker. Then we got to talking about ongoing and possible future projects. Our conversation continued at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Manila.

The propositions were on combining the AIT Goeinformatics remote sensing and risk mapping technologies with the Sahana Software. The pre-disaster risk mapping exercises would complement the alerting and post-disaster incident reporting. The integrated technologies would offer solutions for Regional Governments and In-line Organizations. That is when I brought up the idea of a Sahana Centre of Excellence at AIT.

The intent of the Sahana COE@AIT would be to foster research and development capacity at the Goeinformatics Centre to provide the essential information management systems and the know how. Manzul and I agreed that we would set sail with this idea and fine resources to make it happen.

ITU disaster workshop in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Does this picture remind you of the default Windows XP desktop background? That's what most of Mongolia looks like. Roughly 40% of the Mongolians live in Ulaanbaartar (UB). The rest are sparsely scattered in thinly populated communities in the vast open terrain. The cultures vary across the desert, meadows, and hills. The human to animal ratio is 1:12. The seasonal dwelling is decided on the animals' needs (Mongolia).

Mongolia looking like WinXP

Mr. Terbish and I wandered in Bogd National Park, when he explained some of the characteristics of Mongolian nomadic people. Terbish is a member of the the National Disaster Management Committee representing his mobile company: Unitel. His father in-law is a Herder living 300Km west of UB. Father in-law has to search for a cellular signal, like ride the horse to a coverage area to speak with Terbish; then schedule a reconnecting time if a reply is to follow. In the country-side they don't have FM Radio either. To give you an idea of the coverage, mobile operators had setup temporary base stations to give connectivity to the crowds at the Naadam horse races. The horse races took place in the plains about a 2 hour bus ride from UB with a strait race track spanning 25 kilometers.

3-6 yr old kids racing 3yr old horses, Naadam 2011

RIMES project had pilot tested a community-based warning system with motorcycles and horse-messengers to carry the hazard information to the last-mile communities. In the "hazInfo project" simulations we conducted in Sri Lanka, several communities mounted public addressing systems on the hood of three-wheelers (Tuk-Tuks) to relay the message to the village households. It seemed to work well during the simulations but the efficiencies are questionable during a real event as to whether the communities can organize a three-wheeler and a PA system in short notice. Besides earthquakes, all other hazards in Mongolia are hydro-meteorological that are slow onset giving enough  time to respond.

I was thinking addressable satellite radios but they are not two-way communication devices. HF radios for data transmission may be another way to bridge the last-mile?

These observations were made during the "ITU Asia-Pacific Regional Multi-stakeholder Forum on Emergency Telecommunications", which was held at Chinggis Kaan Hotel, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 08-11 July, 2011. I presented on our experiences with the Common Alerting Protocol and also submitted a supplement brief that recommends member states to register alerting authorities.

READ MY CONFERENCE REPORT