Public Alerting and CAP in Canada

1. Public Alerting and CAP in Canada WMO CAP Workshop Geneva, Switzerland Norm Paulsen Environment Canada April 6-7, 2011

2. Setting the Stage (slide 1 of 2) • Public Alerting is a Business in Canada that uses CAP as a tool • This Business is actually a loosely established community of users… • issuers and distributors • government and private • alerting authorities and vendors • CAP-CP (CAP – Canadian Profile) defines for this community… • A CAP Profile (rules on CAP usage) • A Business Profile (rules on Business usage)

3. Setting the Stage (slide 2 of 2) • CAP-CP rules on CAP • Some optional CAP elements are now required • Some multiple use elements are restricted CONCLUSION: Still valid CAP – you just won’t see some cases you might see in other systems or countries • CAP-CP rules on the Business of Public Alerting (if you are a participant of the CAP-CP community) • Use an Event list defined for CAP-CP • Use a Location geocode list defined for CAP-CP CONCLUSION: Still interoperable – our lists can have a simple transform to any other profile

4. Canadian Public Alerting (slide 1 of 2) • Community Includes… • Issuers • Environment Canada • Natural Resources Canada • Public Safety Canada • Provinces (New Brunswick, Alberta, BC, others coming on line) • Local Jurisdictions, fire, police, etc… • Aggregators • NAAD (National Alerting, Aggregation and Dissemination) • Broadcast Interests within Canada • MASAS (Multi-Agency Situational Awareness System • Emergency Authorities within Canada • Distributors • TV, Radio, Internet, (Mobile)

5. Canadian Public Alerting (slide 2 of 2) <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <alert xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:emergency:cap:1.2"> <identifier>CA-EC-CWTO-2008-7</identifier> <sender>Toronto@MSC@ec.gc.ca</sender> <sent>2010-07-17T20:00:00-00:00</sent> <status>Actual</status> <msgType>Alert</msgType> <scope>Public</scope> <code>profile:CAP-CP:0.4</code> <info> <language>en-CA</language> <category>Met</category> <category>Env</category> <category>Health</category> <event>air quality</event> <eventCode> <valueName>profile:CAP-CP:Event:0.4</valueName> <value>airQuality</value> </eventCode> <expires>2010-07-18T01:00:00-00:00</expires> <senderName>Environment Canada</senderName> <headline>air quality alert</headline> <urgency>Immediate</urgency> <severity>Moderate</severity> <certainty>Observed</certainty> <area> <areaDesc>Misssissauga</areaDesc> <geocode> <valueName>profile:CAP-CP:Location:0.3</valueName> <value>3521005</value> </geocode> </area> <area> <areaDesc>Oakville</areaDesc> <geocode> <valueName>profile:CAP-CP:Location:0.3</valueName> <value>3524001</value> </geocode> </area> </info> </alert> Issuer interfaces with input form, mapping application, etc. Aggregator collects and shares CAP-CP Issuing Application produces CAP-CP Recipient interfaces with common products and services. Ex. Email, map, RSS, TV, ... Distributor filters and converts CAP-CP to common and proprietary protocols 5

6. Links across borders (slide 1 of 1) Source: FEMA IPAWS 6

7. Community contributions (example 1 of 5)- CAP-CP Location References 13 - New Brunswick Statistics Canada - Standard Geographical Classification (SGC) 7

8. Pro’s and Con’s • Con: Can create over-alerting • Pro: Allows existing systems (especially those not based in GIS) an easy way into the community

9. Canadian Profile • Manages the location references code list through ongoing versions • Has a requirement for at least one location code per message in order to optimize current community engagement • But… has also defined an interpretation that GIS constructs are a superior method for location referencing and… • Issuers that can include <polygon>, <circle> should • End of the line Distributors can choose to process one, or the other, or both location referencing schemes • Designed in a way that nets the same result should one apply the CAP interpretation

10. Community contributions (example 2 of 5)- MASAS Multi-Agency Local, regional, provincial/territorial, federal, first nations, non-government organizations, utilities, critical infrastructure managers, private service providers, police, fire, emergency medical services, emergency management, search and rescue, transportation, health, public works, utilities, education, critical infrastructure owners, ... (Shared) Situational Awareness Dynamic, current, transient, event related geospatial information For use with base maps, thematic maps, and other information Systems (of systems) Open architecture: GIS, incident management, dispatch, ... Open standards: Messaging, documents, geospatial, ... 10

11. Common Operating Picture 11

12. Community contributions (example 3 of 5)- CAPAN Symbology Service Systems poll service for symbols Systems insert web references in feeds for other systems to poll Experimental!!!

13. Community contributions (example 4 of 5)- CAPAN Event Location “Layer” This “Layer” defines a practice for including event location in CAP messages CAP only defines the area to be alerted (yellow) The Layer contribution defines the area where the event is actually occurring (orange) Key feature in Multi-Agency Situational Awareness Systems (MASAS) initiative Available at: http://capan.ca/uploads/CAP-CP/CAPAN_CAP_Event_Location_Public_Draft_Rev._A.pdf 13

14. Practices • The CAP – Canadian Profile was designed to encourage good practices • Whether anything we have done ever is considered a “best practice” by the community remains to be seen but… • We try to address global interoperability in everything we do • We try address change as an ongoing business reality • We generally use existing XML “best practices” to extend CAP • CAP-CP Handbook? Implementation Guide?

15. Community contributions (example 5 of 5)- Reference Implementation • Part of the Table of Contents • Reference Implementation  A business-level discussion of CAP-CP for project managers on a non-technical level. • Canadian Profile (CAP-CP)  A unique set of Canadian rules and Canadian managed list values that altogether are termed the CAP Canadian Profile. • Using CAP-CP both within and outside of Canada • Including Standard CAP Alert InformationHow to interpret standard elements. • Sending a CAP Alert to the Public  The process of using aggregators and dissemination (or distribution). • Including Non-Standard CAP Alert Information  Ability to continue serving a subset of recipients while using the Canadian Profile. • Standard CAP with Non-Standard CAP-CP • Versioning  Ensuring that issuers and distributors are speaking the same language. • Simultaneous Alerts • Identifying the area of an alert  Geocodes and managed lists to communicate location using CAP-CP. • Referencing International areas  The ability to identify international locations using text and layers. • Including other geocode lists with CAP-CP • Using geospatial data to avoid over-alertingGeospatial datasets (polygons, circles) to represent the location of an alert. • Identifying the event  Using event codes, and limiting to one event per alert with CAP-CP. • Multiple Languages and Human-Readable Text  Components of CAP that are human-readable, and distribution for native languages. • Alert updates  An overview of how CAP allows for alert updates. • Methods, uses and considerations for alert updates  Different ways a CAP alert can be updated, and considerations for when to use each method. • Minor updates for non-substantive changes  Using the CAP-CP minor update parameter. • Merging and dividing alerts  Methods to merge and divide alerts involving the same area. • Changing the event type  Methods to change an event type when using one event type per CAP alert. • Distributing CAP messages  Methods for issuers to distribute messages to aggregators and distributors. • Digital signatures  Ensuring the authenticity of CAP public alerts.

16. Multiple use of category Some hazards can map to multiple <category /> values. In this case, all of the categories that are applicable can be applied to the alert. CAP-CP requires the use ofan <eventCode> from the CAP-CP Managed “Event References” List. Categories also map from this list. Environment Canada includes categories other than Met in their CAP-CP messages where appropriate, to ensure that any user who is filtering on a specific category receives the alert message. Abbreviated Implementation Guideexample of an air quality alert for Mississauga using multiple categories:

17. Issuer interfaces with input form, mapping application, etc. Aggregator collects and shares CAP-CP Issuing Application produces CAP-CP Recipient interfaces with common products and services. Ex. Email, map, RSS, TV, ... Distributor filters and converts CAP-CP to common and proprietary protocols 17

18. Thank You • WMO CAP Workshop • Geneva, Switzerland • Norm Paulsen (norm.paulsen@ec.gc.ca) • Environment Canada • April 6-7, 2011