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2014
Book Article
Titel
The Role of Information and Communication Technology in the Development of Early Warning Systems for Geological Disasters: The Tsunami Show Case
Abstract
Tsunami warning systems (TWS) are distributed software and hardware systems supporting the reliable detection of imminent tsunami hazards, the rapid situation assessment and the targeted dissemination of customised warning messages. The conceptual evolution of TWS within the last decades is stimulated by and depending on the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The strong influence of ICT emerged in the 1980s when the availability of microcomputer systems and telecommunication facilities facilitated the development of global sensor networks. Since the 1990 s the growth of the Internet has driven standardisation processes for protocols, interfaces and data exchange, providing the foundations for today's TWS. The ongoing development of global warning infrastructures depends on the capability to integrate national and local TWS into system-of-systems. This requires structured software engineering methodologies guided by a reference architecture for TWS. Trends such as cloud computing, ubiquitous sensing and volunteered geographic information will strongly influence the future development of TWS.