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There are various Wireless Emergency Alerts in Germany which inform citizens about important incidents, disasters and dangerous situations, as well as severe weather. Since February 2023, the alerts of the four main systems have been shared and disseminated in parallel.
Since WWII, the traditional method for informing the public about a disaster in Germany has been civil defence sirens. An equivalent to the US Emergency Broadcasting System for sending messages via radio and TV did not exist in Germany for a long time but such a system is now part of the Modular Warning System (MoWas). MoWas is developed by the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (BBK) to warn the population and is coupled to authorities, media and all situation centres of the state governments and their redundancy locations as well as in all integrated control centres in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein. The system is connected to all public broadcasters, a number of private broadcasters, the news agencies dpa, AFP, dts Nachrichtenagentur, the digital billboards of Ströer Media and Wall GmbH, T-Online International, the situation room of Deutsche Bahn and all relevant alert apps. [1]
There were increasing calls to use the Cell Broadcast service in Germany to warn the population in the event of a disaster. The demands intensified after the Floods in Western and Central Europe in 2021. [2] [3]
In August 2021, the German federal government announced that it would introduce Cell Broadcast within the next year. The Bundestag and Bundesrat subsequently approved the necessary amendment to the Telecommunications Act. The Bundesrat approved the introduction of the mobile warning regulation of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action on November 26, 2021. [4] On the second nationwide warning day on December 8, 2022, cell broadcast was successfully used in Germany for the first time. The message was intended to reach all mobile devices that are compatible with Cell Broadcast and have reception. [5]
In February 2023, the Cell Broadcast warning system officially started regular operation. [6] In June 2023, mobile phone operator Vodafone Germany announced that since the start of official operation, 77 warning messages had been sent via Cell Broadcast in various parts of Germany. [7]
In 2015, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe) at BMI presented an emergency information and news app called NINA. Since 2019, the KATWARN system and the Federal MoWaS system have been coupled: warnings of KATWARN and the NINA app are displayed on both sides.
EU-Alert is the wireless emergency system of the European Union and officially called European Public Warning Service . EU-Alert is compatible with the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) standard as used in the United States and based on Cell Broadcast. Since 2012, mobile operating systems have supported EU-Alert/WEA/CMAS via Cell Broadcast for public warning messages by default.
Katwarn was the first alert system in Germany based mainly on smartphone apps and was introduced in 2009. The service is provided by the private company Combirisk GmbH. Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS developed Katwarn on behalf of the major insurance companies in Germany. [9]
Katwarn (also known as KATWARN) is an alert and information system that informs the affected citizen in disasters and dangerous situations (e.g. large fires, power outages, bomb finds). Since 2011, Katwarn has been in use in Germany in various cities, counties and city states, as well as at the state (Bundesländer) and federal level. It can be used, for example, via a smartphone app. Registration to the system is free and it currently serves around 2.5 million users. The app is available worldwide in the app stores for iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.
Since July 2017, Katwarn has also been available in Austria.
The warning app BIWAPP is used by some cities and counties for regional and local urgent reports. The app also displays the disaster warnings of the BBK and the severe weather warnings of the German Weather Service (DWD). All notifications and disaster alerts are sent directly from the officially responsible institutions such as civil protection authorities, municipalities and cities as well as their control centres.
German Weather Service, DWD invented in 2015 a weather warning app, called WarnWetter. At the end of 2017, it was used by 4.9 million users. In 2017, a private weather forecast company brought suit against DWD, because of its free app in 2017. After judgment by the district court of Bonn, there is a free app with commercials and another version for which users have to pay. [10]
A civil defense siren, also known as an air-raid siren or tornado siren, is a siren used to provide an emergency population warning to the general population of approaching danger. It is sometimes sounded again to indicate the danger has passed. Some sirens, especially within small municipalities, are also used to alert the fire department when needed. Initially designed to warn city dwellers of air raids during World War II, they were later used to warn of nuclear attack and natural disasters, such as tornadoes. The generalized nature of sirens led to many of them being replaced with more specific warnings, such as the broadcast-based Emergency Alert System and the Cell Broadcast-based Wireless Emergency Alerts and EU-Alert mobile technologies.
The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is a national warning system in the United States designed to allow authorized officials to broadcast emergency alerts and warning messages to the public via cable, satellite, or broadcast television, and both AM/FM and satellite radio.
A tornado warning is a public warning that is issued by weather forecasting agencies to an area in the direct path of a tornado or a thunderstorm that is capable of producing a tornado. Modern weather surveillance technology such as Doppler weather radar allow for early detection of rotation in a thunderstorm, and for subsequent warnings to be issued before a tornado actually develops. It is nevertheless still not uncommon that warnings are issued based on reported visual sighting of a tornado, funnel cloud, or wall cloud, typically from weather spotters or the public, but also law enforcement or local emergency management. In particular, a tornado can develop in a gap of radar coverage, of which there are several known in the United States.
A severe thunderstorm warning is a type of public warning for severe weather that is issued by weather forecasting agencies worldwide when one or more severe thunderstorms have been detected by Doppler weather radar, observed by weather spotters, or reported by an emergency management agency, law enforcement, or the general public. Unlike a watch, a warning is issued to areas in the direct path of active severe thunderstorms, that are expecting a direct impact typically within an hour. Severe thunderstorms can cause property damage and injury due to large hail, high winds, and flooding due to torrential rainfall. The exact criteria to issue a warning varies from country to country.
The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. CAP allows a warning message to be consistently disseminated simultaneously over many warning systems to many applications, such as Google Public Alerts and Cell Broadcast. CAP increases warning effectiveness and simplifies the task of activating a warning for responsible officials.
An emergency population warning is a method where by local, regional, or national authorities can contact members of the public to warn them of an impending emergency. These warnings may be necessary for a number of reasons, including:
A weather radio is a specialized radio receiver that is designed to receive a public broadcast service, typically from government-owned radio stations, dedicated to broadcasting weather forecasts and reports on a continual basis, with the routine weather reports being interrupted by emergency weather reports whenever needed. Weather radios are typically equipped with a standby alerting function—if the radio is muted or tuned to another band and a severe weather bulletin is transmitted, it can automatically sound an alarm and/or switch to a pre-tuned weather channel for emergency weather information. Weather radio services may also occasionally broadcast non-weather-related emergency information, such as in the event of a natural disaster, a child abduction alert, or a terrorist attack.
The Digital Emergency Alert System (DEAS) was a system managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and designed to alert first-responders and civilians in the event of a national emergency. It was based upon and supplemented the Emergency Alert System (EAS) by sending out text, voice, video, and other digital messages to mobile phones, pagers, radios, and televisions.
Cell Broadcast (CB) is a method of sending messages to multiple mobile telephone users in a defined area at the same time. It is defined by the ETSI’s GSM committee and 3GPP and is part of the 2G, 3G, 4G LTE (telecommunication) and 5G standards. It is also known as Short Message Service-Cell Broadcast (SMS-CB) or CB SMS.
The Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS) is a warning siren used in Australia to alert the public of danger. The siren is played over radio, television or public address systems in public places to warn of bushfire, flood, cyclone, tsunami, earthquake or terrorist attack.
The National Warning System (NAWAS) is an automated telephone system used to convey warnings to United States-based federal, state and local governments, as well as the military and civilian population. The original mission of NAWAS was to warn of an imminent enemy attack or an actual accidental missile launch upon the United States. NAWAS still supports this mission but the emphasis is on natural and technological disasters. Organizations are able to disseminate and coordinate emergency alerts and warning messages through NAWAS and other public systems by means of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
Wireless Emergency Alerts, is an alerting network in the United States designed to disseminate emergency alerts to mobile devices such as cell phones and pagers. Organizations are able to disseminate and coordinate emergency alerts and warning messages through WEA and other public systems by means of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
The Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) is an architecture that unifies the United States' Emergency Alert System, National Warning System, Wireless Emergency Alerts, and NOAA Weather Radio, under a single platform. IPAWS was designed to modernize these systems by enabling alerts to be aggregated over a network and distributed to the appropriate system for public dissemination.
Alberta Emergency Alert (AEA) is a public warning system in Alberta that warns the public on impending or occurring emergencies affecting an area. The system was implemented in October 2011, replacing the former Alberta Emergency Public Warning System. Alerts are disseminated through various media outlets including television and radio, internet, social media mobile apps, and cell broadcast.
The National Public Alerting System, branded as Alert Ready, is the national warning system in Canada, broadcast to Canadian television, radio, and wireless devices.
NL-Alert is a Cell Broadcast alarm system in use by the Dutch government to quickly alert and inform citizens of hazardous or crisis situations. Using this system, authorities can send messages to users of mobile phones in specific areas by using specific cell towers to alert phones within their reach. NL-Alert is one of the first implementations of the EU-Alert or Reverse 1-1-2 legislation as defined by the binding European Electronic Communications Code (EECC) using the Cell Broadcast technology for the delivery of public warning messages to the general public.
EU-Alert is the generic term for the European Public Warning Service based upon Cell Broadcast technology.
Emergency Cell Broadcast System (ECBS) is an alert broadcast system in the Philippines, designed to disseminate emergency alerts and warnings to mobile devices via cell broadcast services (CBS)
The United Kingdom's mobile phone alert system is an emergency population warning system that uses cell broadcast. Early testing began in 2014, with the first test alert sent in March 2020. The warning system is intended for use in major incidents such as flooding or terror attacks. The Emergency Alert System was launched on 19 March 2023, and tested on a nationwide basis for the first time on 23 April 2023.
EUwarn – also KATWARN international – is a European warning and information system according to Article 110 EU Directive (EU) 2018/1972.