TY - JOUR

T1 - Safe City

T2 - A Study of Channels for Public Warnings for Emergency Communication in Finland, Germany, and Greece

AU - Yli-Kauhaluoma, Sari

AU - Statheropoulos, Milt

AU - Zygmanowski, Anne

AU - Anttalainen, Osmo

AU - Hakulinen, Hanna

AU - Kontogianni, Maria Theodora

AU - Kuula, Matti

AU - Pernaa, Johannes

AU - Vanninen, Paula

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank all the interviewees who participated in this study. We would also like to thank the academic editor and two anonymous reviewers for their feedback and useful comments for the improvement of the manuscript. Additionally, we would like to thank the European Union’s Horizon 2020 FET Open programme for funding this research (grant agreement No 899261). We also would like to thank “Open access funding provided by University of Helsinki”.

PY - 2023/10/10

Y1 - 2023/10/10

N2 - Public warning systems are an essential element of safe cities. However, the functionality of neither traditional nor digital emergency warnings is understood well enough from the perspective of citizens. This study examines smart city development from the perspective of safety by exploring citizens’ viewpoints. It investigates people’s perceptions of the ways in which they obtain warnings and information about emergencies involving health risks. Data were collected in the form of focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews in Finland, Germany, and Greece. The results suggest that people place a lot of trust in their social network, receiving text messages, and their ability to use web-based search engines in order to obtain public warnings. The study discusses the challenges identified by citizens in the use of conventional radio and television transmissions and sirens for public warnings. Based on the results, citizens demonstrate informed ignorance about existing mobile emergency applications. Our results imply that it is not sufficient to build emergency communication infrastructure: the development of smart, safe cities requires continuous work and the integration of both hard and soft infrastructure-oriented strategies, i.e., technological infrastructure development including digitalisation and education, advancement of knowledge, and participation of people. Both strategic aspects are essential to enable people to take advantage of novel digital applications in emergency situations.

AB - Public warning systems are an essential element of safe cities. However, the functionality of neither traditional nor digital emergency warnings is understood well enough from the perspective of citizens. This study examines smart city development from the perspective of safety by exploring citizens’ viewpoints. It investigates people’s perceptions of the ways in which they obtain warnings and information about emergencies involving health risks. Data were collected in the form of focus group interviews and semi-structured interviews in Finland, Germany, and Greece. The results suggest that people place a lot of trust in their social network, receiving text messages, and their ability to use web-based search engines in order to obtain public warnings. The study discusses the challenges identified by citizens in the use of conventional radio and television transmissions and sirens for public warnings. Based on the results, citizens demonstrate informed ignorance about existing mobile emergency applications. Our results imply that it is not sufficient to build emergency communication infrastructure: the development of smart, safe cities requires continuous work and the integration of both hard and soft infrastructure-oriented strategies, i.e., technological infrastructure development including digitalisation and education, advancement of knowledge, and participation of people. Both strategic aspects are essential to enable people to take advantage of novel digital applications in emergency situations.

KW - emergency communication channels

KW - mobile emergency applications

KW - public warnings

KW - safe city

KW - smart city

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85175060816&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/mti7100094

DO - 10.3390/mti7100094

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85175060816

VL - 7

JO - Multimodal Technologies and Interaction

JF - Multimodal Technologies and Interaction

IS - 10

M1 - 94

ER -