Quality Aspects of Effective CAP-based Early Warning Systems

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is a key XML-based standard (ITU-T Recommendation X. 1303, governed by the OASIS Emergency Management Technical Committee, EMTC) for alerting all-hazards via all-media and one of the backbones of the UN Early Warnings For All (EW4All) Initiative. Several high level documents refer to "high-quality of CAP alerts" needed in order warning messages are able to reach as many people at risk as possible in near real-time and via various channels, including re-distributors such as Google, Apple or mobile alerting techniques such as Cell Broadcast (CB). Yet comprehensive guidelines for designers and developers of CAP-based Early Warning Systems are lacking, especially when it comes to the quality aspect of CAP alerts, leading to various obstacles when developing and deploying integrated CAP-based Early Warning Systems. Among other factors, this creates a considerable knowledge gap, significantly impacting the effectiveness of Early Warning Systems and hindering the development of open source solutions and thus sustainability of investments from donor organizations. This contribution provides an overview of what CAP is, what advantages and challenges are associated with CAP, how CAP alerts are generated and aggregated at regional and global level, which contentwise and technical aspects are needed to be met to ensure high-quality of CAP alerts, specific requirements of major re-distributors as well as recent initiatives and publications in that wider field. Finally key actors involved in the Early Warnings For All initiative are invited to jointly work on guidelines and common practices towards effective CAP-based Early Warning Systems outputting high-quality CAP.