Internet Generation Forum 2019

Internet Generation Forum 2019

Sustainable Development Department | Sustainability

On the 12th of September AJKC attended ITU Telecom World 2019 conference, the global platform for high-level debate, networking, innovation-showcasing and knowledge-sharing across the ICT community.

The panel discussion, entitled Emerging Climate Disaster Technologies, hosted experts from the field of climate modelling, weather forecasting and telecommunication services. The topic itself is becoming more and more relevant, as with the rising number of extreme weather events the need for technologies which can provide the ability to react on time is increasing as well.
.

Ms Gabriella Szépszó, leading meteorologist of the Modelling Unit of the Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ) highlighted the main observed alterations of regional and global weather patterns. She called attention to the changing global temperature which leads to environmental changes, rise of sea level, melting of ice caps and changes in quantity and geographical distribution of precipitation and extremities of weather conditions.
In ordert to provide more insight into our changing weather patterns, she has been working also on the elaboration of an integrated forecasting system, OpenIFS, which model is extensively used in meteorological education. It supports real research using a complex, state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction model with a variety of approaches. The main idea behind the elaboration of these softwares is to contribute to the European pool of well-qualified young professionals in modelling and large-scale computing support.

Mr Zsolt Pátkai focused more on the role of the Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ) in civil emergency management, as he has been responsible for the relationship between OMSZ and the National Directorate General for Disaster Management since 2015. He highlighted that the weather warning system operated on the public website of the Meteorological Service serves as a mass notification system and as a background information system for other institutions as well in order to protect lives and properties. He mentioned among others Meteoalarm, a website which provides the most relevant information needed to prepare for extreme weather, expected to occur somewhere over Europe. It issues alerts about the possible occurrence of severe weather, such as heavy rain with risk of flooding, severe thunderstorms, heat waves, fog, snow or extreme cold with blizzards. A natural disaster obviously can happen to a developed or to a developing country, none of us is in complete safety. And when disaster happens, those first hours are absolutely crucial.

Mátyás Wéber, manager at KPMG has been working on projects related to spectrum pricing and auction methodology development and was involved in works related to 5G business transformation in the Hungarian telco sector. He mentioned that Hungaryʼs National Media and Infocommunications Authority launched an auction procedure for 5G spectrum licenses in July 2019. Participants may submit their bids for spectrum licenses from this September. Mátyás highlighted the role of the developing 5G spectrum in natural disaster risk management, also mentioning that naccurate tracking of data could cost cities precious time in preparations as well, there are some concerns about 5G in this aspect. However, he highlighted that in connected areas, 5G technology can help first responders to respond quickly, as for example evacuation plans and other emergency protocols need advanced notification, it gives cities time to prepare. ICT’s development is a small part of the problem but can be a huge part of the solution. Through satellites, climate monitoring systems, through cross-boarder initiatives can deliver a huge difference in disaster risk management.

The speakers of the panel discussion concluded that it’s very important to invest in prevention, because communication technology might be one of the most powerful tools human kind has at its disposal to avoid potential climate catastrophies. ICT is a real and reachable opportunity to save human lifes, so the chance to harness the tremendous power of ICT’s should not be missed.

 

 

Sustainable Development Department