Early Warning Systems Defined - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 102

Table 5.2 'Actually is' and 'Ought to be' for EWS
EWS characteristic Traditional Preferred

Elements Information about a

hazard and
response actions

Information about a hazard, response actions,
preparedness beforehand, long-term
education and training about hazards,
vulnerabilities, and disasters

Leadership A separate agency

controlling the
monitoring and
information and
then telling people
what to do

EWS leaders working with the community so
that the elements become part of the
community's day-to-day life

Operations When a hazard

manifests, trigger
the EWS

The EWS is part of the community's day-to-day
life, with activities such as educating about
hazards and vulnerabilities, training about
disaster risk reduction and disaster response,
running drills, gathering baseline data, and
further mapping and updating a commu-
nity's hazards, vulnerabilities, and risks

Focus One or several specifi c

hazards for
specifi c places

Vulnerability reduction for all hazards

But the end-to-end conceptual model of an EWS does not explicitly allow for
feedback from one sector of the EWS, such as those in a community, to other sec-
tors, such as scientists monitoring and interpreting hazard data. Instead, perhaps
'end-to-end-to-end' is needed for an EWS, indicating feedback loops and various
pathways from which information comes and to which information fl ows (see also
Anderson 1969 ).
EWS have existed in some form, as simple as human observation passed down
through oral tradition, for millennia—with varying degrees of success. Society is
continually being challenged by the vulnerability to hazards which society itself
creates and perpetuates. Too often, the fundamental problem is that an EWS for a
wide range of hazards and vulnerabilities is not seen as important by decision-
makers. Instead, a quick fi x focusing on technology for a specifi c hazard is preferred
which assumes that the right information will magically reach the right people who
will then magically perform the right actions.
Between the ideal of the perfect EWS and the reality of EWS being social and
being subject to social, especially political, interferences and whims, lies 'what
could be' (see Table 5.2 ): an EWS improving on current problems and focusing
more on vulnerability without neglecting hazard, even if still far from ideal. With
the understanding of EWS as a social process, we take one step closer to saving
lives.