Essay On Early Warning System

1. Forecasting and early warning

Early warning is, by definition, about the temporal dimension of warning. The second phase of early warning is, logically, that of prevention, which in a way should prove that the early warning system works. After identifying the risks, several kinds of measures can be undertaken, including legal, planning, technological, institutional, and socio-economic as well as other kinds of preventive solutions. If, for instance, a territory is identified as being a high-risk area for flooding, a protective wall can be built or the specific historical nature of the floodplains taken into consideration during land use or drainage planning.

Forecasting and early warning does not always work. This failure can be a result

As with any organization however an early warning system has to meet several organizational requirements. Moreover, as every post-disaster evaluation report points out, even if the organization is at place, its functioning is dependent on continuous maintenance of training, financing and updating of equipment. It seems to be impossible to make any clear-cut recommendation on how the national early warning system and its updating should be organised in detail, as it depends largely on technological and financial conditions and resources, basic political and administrative solutions, societal traditions and so forth, a few general criteria for any such organization are available. To be efficient, an organization should be characterised by a clearly defined mandate, tasks and goals, clear divisions of responsibility, clear leadership and decision-making structures, clarity in the chain of command, clear communication systems and, where appropriate, responsiveness to organizational change. These features can partially be defined through legislation, though they are closely related to other factors and conditions such as cultural/societal/organizational traditions and