Disaster Recovery Journal Summer 2025

Best Practices for Multi-Hazard Early Warning Systems

By GERMAN VARGAS PEDROZA T decision-making. Additionally, they facilitate wider coverage and improved ease in communication and dissemination, substantially bolster response capacity, reduce human and material losses, and contribute to greater maturity in community resilience. Technology-Based Benefits and Challenges he importance of having early warning systems in disaster situations is well recognized. Leveraging new technologies significantly increases the effec tiveness of efforts and investments dedicated to disaster management. These technological advancements offer numerous benefits, including enhanced accuracy and timeliness of alerts, access to real-time information, and the integration of mul tiple information sources to enable more precise

1. Current Status and Global Need for Adequate Attention. The United Nations (UN) defines an early warning system (EWS) as: “An integrated system of hazard monitoring, forecast ing and prediction, disaster risk assessment, communication and preparedness activities systems and processes that enable indi viduals, communities, governments, businesses, and others to take timely action to reduce disaster risks in advance of hazard ous events.” This definition has required expansion to include “multi hazard” to reflect the realities of our daily lives, which involve simultaneous or cascading disasters. This broader scope is now referred to as multi-hazard early warning systems (MHEWS), a concept experts in other fields have also labeled as “poly-crises.” According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in its most recent publications, MHEWS have reached their high est level of coverage to date. While this represents a notable achievement, disaster-related issues such as mortality rates, the number of affected individuals, food insecurity, population dis placement, and impacts on vulnerable populations continue to rise, particularly in less developed countries. In recent years, some of the most significant disaster events

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