Abstract
Himalaya is one of the most seismically active and earthquake-prone
regions of the world. Recently an Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS)
for Northern India has been developed which includes around 165 strong
ground motion accelerometers installed in Uttarakhand (India). A timely
earthquake early warning of few seconds can save people’s lives and thus
the development of an improved Warning Dissemination System (WDS)
component of EEWS is much required. For this purpose, an improved WDS
has been developed. This system currently uses newly designed low-cost
public sirens and smartphone apps to alert people in case of an
earthquake. The developed sirens have been currently installed in two
major cities of Uttarakhand (India) and in all district emergency
operations centers for the last 2 years. On 4th August 2021, the newly
developed app “Uttarakhand Bhookamp Alert” for WDS has been officially
launched by the Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority for
operational use. Further, a GIS-based maintenance system is also
developed for the maintenance of the complete system, which
automatically checks the health and keeps records of the sirens along
with the smartphone users. This app gives the facility to the users for
sharing their current location with disaster rescue teams after the
earthquake early warning alert. Detailed scientific principles and
working mechanism of newly developed dissemination system along with its
applicability to disseminate the real-time information in case of an
earthquake will be presented.