Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) End-user Education and Training at Ocean Networks Canada

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is a world-leading organization supporting ocean discovery and technological innovation. Together with provincial and federal governments, and in collaboration with ShakeAlert® partners, ONC has been developing an earthquake early warning (EEW) system for BC that utilizes offshore and land-based sensors to give select End-user recipients maximum potential warning time for a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake.

While the technical installations are being deployed, testing is being undertaken with a number of pilot End-users to prepare the system for operational readiness. To date, the focus of EEW development surrounds system performance (e.g., latency and accuracy) and overlooks the importance of End-user's performance (e.g, the ability to take appropriate and timely reactions to EEW notifications). These technical and human systems need to work together; EEW is only valuable when it is effectively received, understood, and utilized appropriately. In this effort, an education and training module was developed to support system understanding and guide use of EEW notifications within an End-user's environment.

Education and training material were designed to be practical and relevant for technical and non-technical audiences. It utilized hypothetical earthquake scenarios in a table-top exercise format to engage participants' imagination, open communication, and critical thinking. Facilitated group discussions highlighted participants' earthquake experiences and considered perceptions on what actions might have been taken had an EEW alert been received prior to ground shaking. Pre and post surveys were used to measure effectiveness of material and collect participant feedback. In this presentation, we propose recommendations for future EEW education and training material.