Communication in crisis management – current status, needs and potential development areas

Abstract

This work aim is to present the communication systems that are currently available on the market and to discuss them regarding their use, shortcomings, potential improvement and development opportunities. It also presents the most important and immediate needs to improve the quality and reliability of the signal to avoid outrages and connection failures. Also, other communication problems are discussed here, such as fake news and terminology-related challenges. Using effective and secure communication system is important during incidents and crisis situations for information exchange and situation awareness for all entities involved in the field and remotely in command centres. Ineffective communication or breakdowns in the information conveying channels are considered to be the most significant reasons for inadequate or failed response to natural disasters such as flooding. In order to evaluate the current status and currently used technologies, needs and potential areas of development a survey has been conducted. As with the warning systems, the most entities use electronic sirens, radio, TV, means of public information. Another way to announce crisis situation is phone, e-mail and specific application such as Nina or MoWaS App. The systems work on various levels: local, regional, national, international and the communication systems vary across countries. For voice communication the most commonly used is public fixed telephone networks and public mobile networks, while for data communication local area network and wireless local area. According to the gathered information, the most common problem regarding communication technologies is the connection itself, which means the signal outrages and interruptions, communication breakdowns, no or poor transfer rate, capacity problems during large scale incidents, no secured non-public communication system, disconnection of fixed and mobile public networks, infrastructure failure (landlines or electricity) etc. The possible innovations opportunities include voice service for group calls and D2D communication on the basis of IP protocol, multimedia Push-to-X services, Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) for sub-set of services, repeater/relay stations and other. The study was conducted within the DAREnet project which is a network of practitioners dealing with flood resilience in the Danube River Region, supported by a continuously evolving multi-disciplinary community of stakeholders consisting of policy makers, academics, industry and more. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 740750.