Scoping the potential for earthquake early warning in Aotearoa New Zealand: A sectoral analysis of perceived benefits and challenges

Abstract

Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) systems are used to detect earthquakes and provide advanced notice of strong shaking intensity, allowing people to take pre-emptive actions that benefit the health of infrastructure and the life-safety of the public. With the advancement of technical research of EEWs, there is also an increasing need to understand EEW's potential impacts on society. In this study, we investigated the perspectives of various sectors in Aotearoa New Zealand on EEW. We used focus groups and interviews with multiple sectors, including but not limited to utilities, infrastructure, emergency management, health and education. We found that participants generally supported the idea of EEW. Participants perceived EEW to provide benefits to (1) life-safety and health & safety (i.e. death and injury); (2) psychological preparedness; (3) activation of emergency plans and situational assessment; and (4) organisational and site-specific actions to reduce impacts and aid response and recovery. Furthermore, our findings also showed that despite support from the sectors, there are challenges in introducing and applying EEW. Participants acknowledged challenges that need to be addressed, such as: (1) users' confidence in the EEW system; (2) the threshold and delivery for sending warnings; and (3) the content and comprehension of an EEW message that would result in people taking appropriate or inappropriate action. As EEW technological research and deployment is rapidly advancing internationally, future research should keep in mind the societal benefits and challenges of EEW when looking to develop useful sectoral applications.