International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract

This is an exploratory study that contributed to the field of community-based disaster risk management (CBDRM), intently and carefully looking at how communities should react when an instance of an emergency or imminent disaster is to take place. Early warning is an action-trigger to any response consequence of any community. Hence, this study intends to define and to underscore early warning as a critical element of a systematized CBDRM, devising strategies to empower the communities. The study also employed the concept of an affiliated crowdsourcing as a form of participation and an evolutionary method of SMS escalation in delivering effective early warning in a community. The study entailed the design of a systematized prototype of a CBDRM to include early warning tools that permit alerting and reporting incidents or emergencies related to flooding and fire. The research study comes to a determination of a community-based early warning system in an urban setting and a set of processes that enable the citizens to take an active, participative and involved role. And while there are pertinent literatures on early warning systems, this paper intends to expand the concept of early warning.