Signalert V4: The smartphone app that enables users to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and to share their testimonies about the impacts of extreme events

A unique tool that can detect, describe and share information about the impact of extreme events (natural & human) on people, infrastructure, natural resources, agriculture and the environment 

Four years after its first launch on Appstore and Googleplay, the smartphone application, SIGNALERT version 4 is now available. This tool enables users to describe and share their testimonies about the effects of natural disasters and the impact of climate change, man-made disasters and industrial accidents. 

The latest version, released in February 2018, allows users to describe 25 different phenomena and their associated risks concerning issues such as the environment, infrastructure, natural resources and the health and security of the affected populations. 
Twenty-five different types of events can now be described using the app.

18 natural events:

• 1. Flood
• 2. Flash Flood
• 3. Avalanche
• 4. Snowfall
• 5. Wild Fire
• 6. Rock fall
• 7. Earthquake 
• 8. Cyclone/Hurricane/Typhoon
• 9. Coastal flood
• 10. Tornado
• 11. Tsunami
• 12. Volcanic Eruption
• 13. Landslide
• 14. Heatwave
• 15. Drought
• 16. Extreme Temperatures
• 17. Intense Rainfall
• 18. Locust Invasion

• 7 Man-Made Events:
• 19. Troubles and violence
• 20. Pollution of the ocean and fresh water
• 21. Illegal waste disposal
• 22. Road & Transport accidents
• 23. Fires and Explosions
• 24. Air pollution
• 25. Terrorist Attacks

The addition of these new phenomena increases the capacity of the app to cover the most frequent causes of environmental, health and security challenges that currently face our planet and its people. 

The principal is the same for each phenomenon: share the date, time, geo-localization, images, a description phenomenon’s intensity and the impact of the damage caused. Certain phenomena can be described using a questionnaire. This allows the gravity of the phenomenon to be recorded according to simple intensity scales, which are based on universal markers of intensity (e.g. water levels). This ensures that they can be understood by anyone, regardless of their location. The scales consist of 3-4 levels of intensity and are attached to pre-existing international scales when possible. Collaboration with French research organizations has enabled us to develop new innovative scales for some phenomena. One result of this collaboration was the development of a new scale for the description of earthquakes using environmental markers to create a more accurate alternative to the conventional scales (MSK, MMI, EMS98, which are based solely on the extent of damage to buildings. 

Collection of real-time descriptions of the situation on the field is more direct and efficient than the use of data streams captured by social media, which has become increasingly dominated by fake news or false and automatically generated accounts. This mass of polluted data involves significant resources and a tedious verification process, requiring visual control or software to assess the authenticity of messages and images. Furthermore, it often lacks invaluable geolocation information.

The descriptions uploaded by the application’s users are shared with other users in the surrounding areas. It is also published on our open source webmap resources such as the OPENCYCLONE and SENEGALRISK portals. 

These maps give real-time access to alerts made by the application’s users and will remain available for one week. An example is available on the OPENCYCLONE portal (alerts remain on this site for 2 weeks): https://bit.ly/2pI7BXy

Contribute to the objectives of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction

The SIGNALERT app responds to multiple objectives in accordance to the United Nation’s Sendai Framework for the risk reduction of natural disasters published in 2015.  (https://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/hfa-post2015) 

The increased number of phenomena that can be described during the early stages of the event, the improved description of the situation on the ground, both during and after the crisis, make SIGNALERT one of the only early-warning alert tools in the world that covers multiple phenomena on a single platform.  The application also includes regularly updated advices for survival and safety specific to each type of phenomenon and intensity. The app contributes to the improved resilience of people, property, infrastructure and the improvement of preventative and post-crisis interventions. 

During mid-March 2018 CARIBE WAVE 2018 tsunami exercise, the app and our open portal OPEN CYCLONE TUSNAMI were tested. During this simulation of a tsunami in the Caribbean region, the event detection and notification features were automatically activated to alert users of the application by notification and sms, after a predefined density of alerts reception was exceeded.  http://bit.ly/2FxNx0e

Personally Contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals 

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals introduced in 2015 by the United Nations require the contribution of all citizens and public actors to ensure their achievement by 2030. 

The involvement of individuals in the Sustainable Development Goals is being actively promoted with many different incentives being offered for participation in personal projects. (More information is available online at http://sdgactioncampaign.org/ and on Twitter #ACT4SDGS)

With the SIGNALERT app you can choose your preferred theme or cause, or contribute to multiple themes at the same time depending on the situations you experience. You will become an actor for Citizen Science and crowdmapping, increasing the visibility and sensitization of crises and the impact they have on people and their livelihoods on a daily basis. In addition to all this, depending on the phenomena, you can contribute to the overall reduction of its impact.

SIGNALERT can be used anywhere in the world, the testimonies will be useful whether you are on your way to work, on a field mission in an unsafe area or even if you discover a source of water pollution while relaxing by the beach on your holidays.  

When you subscribe to the SIGNALERT platform, you will be able to create a network with your field users equipped with the App motivated by one or more environmental cause.  We will create the working environment for you, which will enable you to interact with your community via the app, send messages to your team with the web interface tool or other social media platforms. On our SIGNALERT CONSULT platform you will be able to organize the collect of in-situ or ground truthing data, process or export it. 

You can develop and coordinate campaigns to identify hotspots linked to your topic, such as locating illegal dumping sites and sharing the information through the app or the web portal, which we will create for your community. This can all be organized on a community scale, country scale and continent scale. 

SIGNALERT has multiple possible uses:

• Localization of the release of pollutants in fresh or marine waters during flooding.

• Localization and quantification of beach retreat and erosion, damages to houses and infrastructures areas after a storm, a cyclone

• Real-time localization and description of damage and the impact of events and natural disasters.

• Your perception of pollution and air quality in polluted urban zones or during forest fires. 

• Localization of illegal dumps and garbage hot spots.

• Real time report and location of locust invasion.

• Report and share your location during violent situations, regardless of whether you are home or abroad

You don’t need to go the center of Pacific Ocean to find floating garbage patches. They are everywhere on our coasts. You can launch you own campaign of garbage removal. With the Signalert app you locate, quantify, capture situation before and after your removal work. Contact us to organize you campaign and network, and publish your score of garbage removal on your favorite beach. Contact us and we will open a free portal for you to expose your work and set up the app for your networks of partners.