Main
participants in early warning systems
Many groups are important to disaster early warning systems – public
officials, community and business leaders, NGOs, scientists, academics,
teachers, the media, community leaders, and of course householders. The
best early warning systems find ways to link all these groups and to facilitate
their cooperation.
Communities
Ultimately, early warning systems succeed or fail depending on community
involvement. Too often the populations at risk are not engaged or consulted.
Specialist technical services cannot do the job alone. Individual action
is not enough. Whether it is for the assessment of the long term risks
faced, the preparedness measures to be taken, the communication and interpretation
of warnings, or the commitment to action on warnings, the engagement of
communities and their natural leaders is essential, in order to build effective
capacity in all links of the early warning chain.
National meteorological and hydrological services
Since about 80% of all disasters involve the weather, in most countries
the national meteorological and hydrological service is the key national
agency for issuing early warnings. Sometimes this agency also has responsibility
for volcanic and earthquake hazards. In some countries, floods and hydrological
forecasting are handled by a separate agency, for example a river basin
management authority. When a serious hazard is imminent, to avoid confusion
it is important that there is a single authoritative voice for the early
warnings. Information on national meteorological and hydrological services
can be found at the World Meteorological Organization site http://www.wmo.int.
Authorities concerned with impacts
In many countries, there are other authorities such as departments of civil
protection, or of emergency management, which manage crises when they occur
in order to reduce the impacts. These or other authorities may also take
responsibility for assessing the social and economic impacts of potential
hazard events and for issuing warnings of likely future impacts. Sometimes
they may also undertake preventative mitigation and preparedness activities
and outreach, including promotion of early warning and preparedness.
However, it is uncommon for authorities to systematically monitor and provide
early warnings of the underlying social and environment conditions that
are the cause of the growing vulnerability of many communities to natural
hazards. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has recently published
a report Reducing disaster
risk: a Challenge for Development, which surveys
vulnerability factors for most countries.
United Nations authorities
Many
United Nations agencies
and secretariats are active in early warning,
either to support
public use, or for their own operational use. Principal concerns include
weather data and warnings (WMO), food-related monitoring and early
warning (FAO, WFP), water related hazards and tsunami (UNESCO, WMO),
drought (WMO, UNCCD), environmental factors (UNEP), humanitarian concerns
(OCHA), and health impacts (WHO). Several UN agencies played a strong
role in the Second International Conference on Early Warning and are
involved in the development of the Platform for the Promotion of Early
Warning.
Links
to early warning organizations and issues.
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