A global review of disaster reduction initiatives - Welcome to the ...

Selected application of disaster reduction measures55.6 Early warning systemsThe ultimate goal of hazard forecasting and early warning systems is to protect lives and property.They therefore constitute one of the key elements of any disaster reduction strategy. To servethe people effectively, they need to be integrated instruments designed to link the scientific andtechnical initiators of warnings and those who identify vulnerabilities, the intermediaries composedof public authorities who issue warnings and emergency instructions, disseminators and processorsof sector-specific products, and the ultimate users of the warnings in local communities.Robust, accurate and timely means of reliable and understandable communications are essential.Effective early warning procedures should be part of the national institutional and legislativeframeworks for disaster management and have redundancy built into the system. To be fully successful,early warning must be complemented by professional services, training and capacitybuildingactivities and the allocation of resources, to enable timely actions to be taken to avert lossor avoidable damage.This section begins with the current status of early warning thinking. An effective early warningsystem is built on three requisites:• Political responsibility to promote early warning strategies;• Participation and knowledge of the public;• Support at the international and regional levels;completed by the following three elements:• Technical identification and monitoring of hazards;• Multidisciplinary, multi-agency and intersectoral communications;• Institutional services to react to warnings; and concludes withCurrent status of early warning thinkingEarly warning has always been considered a cornerstoneof disaster reduction. From the outset,IDNDR had set as one of the targets to beattained by all countries by 2000, ready access toglobal, regional, national and local warning systemsand broad dissemination of warnings. Duringthe past decade, significant activities,events/conferences and programmes had promotedthe feasibility and added value of earlywarning, and identified major strengths andweaknesses of early warning capacities around theworld. These included the 1994 Yokohama Strategyand Plan of Action for a Safer World, theDeclaration of the 1998 Potsdam Early WarningConference and the Early Warning ProgrammeAction Plan for the Future presented at theIDNDR Programme Forum in 1999. Specificconcerns were also addressed related to climaticphenomena such as El Niño (Guayaquil Interna-Elements of the early warning chain:Forecast and prediction of impendingextreme events, on the basis of scientificknowledge and monitoring resultsWarning processing and disseminationof information from the first segmenttogether with information on the possibleimpacts on people and infrastructure(i.e. vulnerability assessment) tothe political authorities and to thethreatened population. The informationincludes appropriate response-orientedrecommendationsReaction to warnings based on a properunderstanding of the information bythe population at risk and local authorities,and subsequent implementationof protective measures.261