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Observations on uses of telecommunication in emergency management. Harriet Lonka, Gaia Group Ltd harriet.lonka@gaia.fi Emergency Telecommunications Workshop 26-27 February 2002 ETSI, Sophia Antipolis, France. What is technology needed for?.
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Observations on uses of telecommunication in emergency management Harriet Lonka, Gaia Group Ltd harriet.lonka@gaia.fi Emergency Telecommunications Workshop 26-27 February 2002 ETSI, Sophia Antipolis, France
What is technology needed for? • Technology is needed to facilitate and enable timely communication • Technology has no value in itself but only in its ability to serve the organizations’ communicational needs • The success of technology depends on, how well the designer understands the functions and needs of organisations and individual users
Problems with new technology • Design of new emergency telecommunication systems has been too much technology driven • The danger is that the expensive and technically sophisticated systems end up to be under-used and do not benefit the users as much as they potentially could
Finnish case example - public authority network VIRVE • A TETRA standard based public authority network • In operational test use from autumn 2001 in South Eastern Finland • Is targeted to be at use in the whole country till 2005
Specific features of VIRVE • Covers all relevant authorities: rescue services, police, social and healthcare, border guard, customs, environment etc. • Authorized users and user groups; safety and security; speed and high capacity • Is designed to apply well for the new Emergency Response Centers’ work
Lessons to be learned from the Finnish experience • How to take multi-stakeholder environment properly into account • Careful analysis of information available and information needed by different actors is crucial in design • Design of a communication system is broader issue than just feeding information to a situation leader
Need for standardization twofold • Internationally to smooth the cross-boarder co-operation in emergency management • Nationally to enable better co-operation and synergy between different authorities in crisis situations
Conclusions • In future emergency telecommunications design the needs of multi-stakeholder operations must be taken more carefully into account • User’s perspective: Design of communication systems must be based on understanding of organisations and their working habits and needs