Providing a warning channel in Amsterdam

October 4, 2022

Cordelia Wilson, Senior Communications Consultant recently presented TPEG2 Emergency Alerts & Warnings (EAW) at the 2022 @Common Alerting Protocol Workshop and Training on 20 September in Amsterdam on behalf of the Traveller Information Services Association. Teun Hendriks, Member of the TISA Steering Board also joined live from the ITS World Congress 2022 in Los Angeles to discuss the field trials in Germany, its technical application and the future implementation of TPEG2 (EAW).  The workshop brought together a range of global actors in the emergency sector including public authorities and industry players such as Google to discuss how to improve the dissemination of warnings in situations where it is vital to communicate with travellers.

The implementers of CAP and other associated organisations discussed the importance of a common platform such as CAP to launch messaging, but also recognised the challenges such as lack of standardisation and the varying information channels to reach those caught up in disasters.  This is where the TPEG2 Emergency Alerts and Warnings (EAW) standard comes in, which enables CAP alerts offered by CAP Alert Hubs to go directly to in-vehicle navigation systems, such as Garmin, Tom-Tom, and those offered by car manufacturers worldwide. Cordelia Wilson stated ‘This is a mature technology that is embedded in millions of devices worldwide that can effectively inform drivers and travellers so they can re-route to avoid danger.’ Teun Hendriks, joining live from the ITS World Congress in Los Angeles discussed the field trials in Germany, the technical application of the technology and the future implementation of TPEG2 (EAW), also announced the new Evaluation Kit that TISA has recently been made available.

The event was hosted by Everbridge and Alert Hub and is co-sponsored by the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the OASIS standards organization and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and gathers all interested in emergency information warnings from across the world.