Civil Alerts Projects

These projects are part of the wider work on warning and informing the public at the time of an emergency. More information about this work can be found here.

Pilot study into Extending the Floodlines Warning Direct system

Background

The Environment Agency (EA) operates the Extended Floodlines Warnings Direct (EFWD) system to notify households if they are at imminent risk of flooding. Consultation in 2010 asked Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) to identify risks from their community risk registers where this alerting capability might benefit the response. The conclusions of this consultation identified that high-hazard areas - such as major petrochemical or civil nuclear installations and areas at risk of reservoir inundation - would be likely candidates.

Aim of the pilot

The aim is to conduct a live trial, using the Floodlines Warning Direct infrastructure to provide alerts to targeted members of the public, living near an identified hazardous industrial site in Cheshire. The live trial will be conducted on 1 February 2012.

The aim of the pilot is to:

• determine the appropriateness of using the EFWD approach to areas and risks beyond flooding.
• identify the level of change needed to the existing system used for flooding purposes. 
• engage a sample of users through the trial and deliver test alert messages to them. 
• evaluate the overall approach so as to be in a position to provide Ministers with advice as to the likely benefit of such a system.
• produce a consultation pack, on which the views of other LRFs could be established.

Contact: For further information please visit www.cheshireresilience.org.uk

Cell Broadcasting project

Background

A significant amount of work has been undertaken to understand how the Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) could be used as a warning and informing capability. Cell Broadcast is the transmission (or more precisely broadcast) of a text-type message to a defined geographic area. CCS are currently developing a project to look, in further detail, at how this could work. Once conducted the project will be evaluated to determine the benefits of this capability.

Aim of the project

The aim of this project is to consider how alert messages may be sent to mobile devices in a specified area, as a way of warning and informing members of the public about a risk in their area.

Contact: For further information please contact CellBroadcast@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk