Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA

Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss

Swiss Approach to handle Natural Hazard Events

Emergency Alerting Policy Workshop, May 2012, Montreal, C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss, Switzerland

Outline

• Some «Swissology»; crash course • Floods in 2005 as starting point for optimization • Outline of the main improvements • Bringing experts and staff organizations together • SOV: first experience • Exercises: Seismo 12

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss 2

Switzerland: Position in Europe

Central Europe Alps Large rivers have origin in Switzerland, they drain in all directions Land-locked country, but close to NA ocean Growing cost NH (350 MCHF a year) 3

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: „© OpenStreetMap and collaboraters, CC BY-SA“

Federal Structure

26 Cantons with a considerable amount of sovereignty Each canton has • Own constitution and laws • Own Parliament • Own Government • Own Courts 3 official languages (D, F, I) 1 “inofficial” language (rhaeto-romanic)

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: geodata@swisstopo © 6

Division of tasks

• • • •

Responsability Swiss Confederation

Forecasting (Hydrology FOEN, Weather MeteoSwiss, Avalanches SLF) Warning Integration of all involved stakeholders Some directive competence during events, intervention (e.g. to grant deviations in lake level regulation, nationwide crisis) • • • • •

Responsability Cantons, Communities

Preparedness, contingency planning Local evaluation, local systems (e.g. slide control systems) Alerting (with directive com petence) Intervention Evacuation

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss 7

Warnings @ MeteoSwiss

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss 8

Floods in 2005

• Lack of coordinated information from federal authorities and delays in the dissemination.

• Limited capacities to interpret official information and to transform them into actions by relief units.

• Limited information exchange between natural hazards experts and relief units.

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Sources: bve, Kanton Bern; WWF; ONZ; AWEL, Kanton Zürich 9

OWARNA, Optimizing Warnings and Alerting

Preparedness

• Organisation • Ress. planning • Intervention planning • Training • Warning • Information

Intervention

• Alerting • Rescue • Damage mitigation • Information

Prevention

• Land use Planning •Technical measures •

… Recondition

• Prov. repair • Supply • Transport systems • Communication • . . .

Recovery Reconstruction

• Definitive repair • Improving resilience • . . .

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Integral risk circle Sources: Studiengang Bauingenieur Modul Infrastruktur und 11 Naturgefahren, LAINAT S. Hess

OWARNA and additional efforts since 2007 - outline

• Federal Offices recognized that a

collaborative approach

horizontally

and

vertically

is needed • New common

federal technical intervention staff

unit during natural hazard events (FS NatGef)  operational, tactical level… (added value: comprehensive and consolidated situation assessment) • …with a high level strategic steering committee (LAINAT) on regular basis • Extending the competence of

federal crisis staff

(BST ABCN) to natural hazard events  new federal ordinance • New legislation defining the principles of

«Single Official Voice»

warnings (two revised federal ordinances regarding warnings and Radio, TV) • Improving forecasting systems 12

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss

OWARNA and additional efforts since 2007 - outline

• Improving information • Joint information platform natural hazards ( on all levels

GIN

) for experts • naturgefahren.ch for the public with SOV-warnings and basic rules of conduct in natural hazard events (which is already undergoing a major review, relaunch) • Public

hotline

during events • Training of natural hazard «experts» on local level • Pro-active common review of the division of tasks • Cost approx. 70 Mio CHF a year (on all levels) reducing the risk by 200 Mio CHF 13

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss

Today: Harmonized warning levels and products

Avalanches Weather

Level 5 Level 5

Floods/ Slides

Level 5

Earthquakes Forest Fires

Level 5 Level 5 Level 4 Level 4 Level 4 Level 4 Level 4 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Level 2 Level 2 Level 2 Level 2 Level 2 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: LAINAT (Confederation), S. Hess

May

be pub lished through the media ->

SOV

(public) and for authorities For authorities 15

Today: Harmonized warning levels and products

Avalanches Weather

Level 5 Level 5

Floods/ Slides

Level 5

Earthquakes Forest Fires

Level 5 Level 5 Level 4 Level 4 Level 4 Level 4 Level 4 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Level 3 Level 2 Level 2 Level 2 Level 2 Level 2 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: LAINAT (Confederation), S. Hess

May

be pub lished through the media ->

SOV

(public) and for authorities For authorities 16

Warnings by the federal offices

• Have a

common XML format

which is not CAP (sorry…) • All warnings are distributed via the

safe and secure network

of the national emergency operation center of the federal office of civil protection to the

subscribed authorities

(mainly cantonal authorities) • • Once a year two

review workshops

(user consultations) are organized (German, French) by the federal offices, where the cantonal authorities are asked to give their feedback interactively

SOV

• • warnings are disseminated on radio (local and nation wide networks) on TV (local and nation wide networks) • on the federal public and expert internet sites for natural hazard • Warnings are published on

internet sites

of the offices, on mobile Apps, as text-SMS and Emails

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss 17

Bringing experts and staff organizations together

Natural hazards experts Civil protection Population Specialist unit National crisis staff Steering Commitee and Staff Intervention against Nat. Haz.

Reporting and situation centre Cantonal crisis staff Specialist units Communal crisis staff Local experts Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: LAINAT (Confederation), S. Hess 19

Joint Information Platform for Natural Hazards

FOEN: Floods Analyses MeteoSwiss: Storms/Rain National Services Modelling Warnings Forecasts SLF: Snow Conditions Measured Data Informations Confederation Cantons

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Municipalities Source: LAINAT (Confederation), S. Hess 20

Joint Information Platform for Natural Hazards

Integral approach in Switzerland

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SOV – experience after one year

• • • • • 0 to 3 SOV warnings a year are a robust estimate for Switzerland News internet sites are very fast to spread the SOV warnings, but they need to have additional, contextual information (press communiqué) Probability/certainty needs to be very high for a SOV warning (in contradiction to needs of authorities – 40% of prob. is high enough to them) Process to issue SOV was adapted: intervention staff unit of MeteoSwiss is tasked to handle the political and communicative dimension of a SOV warning (high level manager is on board for the final SOV decision) Public is very much interested

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss 22

«Finally something exiting in swiss TV! …»

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: LAINAT (Confederation), S. Hess 23

Exercise Seismo 12: 8.5. – 10.5.2012

Epicenter

Basel, Switzerland

Magnitude Intensity Annuality in CH

1’000 years

Integral approach in Switzerland

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Exercise Seismo 12: 8.5. – 10.5.2012

• 3 Countries, CH-F-D affected • City of Basel destroyed, strong aftershocks probable • Many casualities • Main goal: proof of concept of the new setup and train the complex interactions between the different staff and intervention units 25

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss 26

• • • • •

Conclusion

Event in 2005 triggered a large amount of activities for improvement in the

field of preparedness and intervention

Close cooperation is the key for effective procedures in an emergency • This is not only an organizational task but also an

active political task/process

in a country like Switzerland (can not be ordered by a central authority) •

Horizontal

(between FO) •

Vertical

(between Confederation and Cantons) • Between

experts

and

staff organizations Legislation

needs to be adapted

Dedicated information platforms

with customized information are important The provided information has to be understood by the recipients in an emergency – which is not trivial • Knowledge on natural hazards has to be built up 27

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss

Before: Different levels of warnings and products

Avalanches Weather Floods/ Slides Earthquakes Forest Fires

Level 5 Level 5 Level 5 Level3 Level 4 Level 4 Level 4 Level 3 Level 3 Richter scale Level 2 Level 3 Level 2 Level 2 Level 2 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1 Level 1

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: LAINAT (Confederation), S. Hess 28

Success logic

What is needed to be successful in response to future natural hazard events on all levels?

Gap analysis showed room for improvement on merely all levels The analysis of the success logic is reviewed regularly to identify where effort needs to be taken 29

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Source: LAINAT (Confederation), netmap

LAINAT

Steering Committee Intervention against Natural Hazards

• adopted in October 2008 by • • Federal Office for the Environment, Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology • • Federal Office for Civil Protection, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research • Swiss Seismological Service • Coordination of joint, inter-agency project OWARNA • Regular information exchange • Collaboration in emergencies: federal technical staff unit comes with different common products (for media and authorities)

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss 30

Joint Information Platform for Natural Hazards

FOEN: Floods Analyses MeteoSwiss: Storms/Rain National Services Modelling Warnings Forecasts SLF: Snow Conditions Measured Data Informations Confederation Cantons

Integral approach in Switzerland

| Alerting policy workshop, Montreal C. Schmutz, MeteoSwiss Municipalities Source: LAINAT (Confederation), S. Hess 31