Brief communication: Effective earthquake early warning systems: appropriate messaging and public awareness roles
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Abstract
The earthquake early warning systems (EEWSs) in China have achieved great progress, with warning alerts being successfully delivered to the public in some regions. We examined the performance of the EEWS in China's Sichuan Province during the 2019 Changning earthquake. Although its technical effectiveness was tested with the first alert released 10 s after the earthquake, we found that a big gap existed between the EEWS's message and the public's response. We highlight the importance of EEWS alert effectiveness and public participation for long-term resiliency, such as delivering useful alert messages through appropriate communication channels and training people to understand and properly respond.
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Zhang et al. found that although China's Earthquake Early Warning system delivered a technically accurate alert within 10 seconds during the 2019 Changning earthquake, a substantial gap remained between alert delivery and appropriate public response.
“For example, Zhang et al. [22] found that although China's EEW system delivered a technically accurate alert within 10 seconds during the 2019 Changning earthquake, a substantial gap remained between alert delivery and appropriate public responseillustrating that awareness of EEW alone is insufficient without accompanying education on protective actions.”
From A comparative study on Earthquake Preparedness of Japanese and International Students in a Nankai Trough Earthquake-threatened Area in Shikoku, Japan (2026) · cites this paper as [22]
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Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe effectiveness of Earthquake Early Warning depends not only on technical performance but also on public awareness, knowledge of system functionality and limitations, message comprehension, and preparedness education.
“However, the effectiveness of EEW depends not only on technical performance but also on public awareness, knowledge of system functionality and limitations, message comprehension, and preparedness education [22][23][24].”
From A comparative study on Earthquake Preparedness of Japanese and International Students in a Nankai Trough Earthquake-threatened Area in Shikoku, Japan (2026) · cites this paper as [22]
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Research works printed but not linked: 17
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Agbehadji, I. E., Mabhaudhi, T., Botai, J., & Masinde, M. (2023) · Climate · doi:10.3390/cli11090188 · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Atalyan, T., & Bhandary, N. P. (2026) · Natural Hazards Research · doi:10.1016/j.nhres.2026.07.004
- Authors
- Zhang, M., Qiao, X., Seyler, B. C., Di, B., Wang, Y., & Tang, Y.
- Affiliations
- Sichuan University (CN)
- Venue
- Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences
- Publisher
- Copernicus GmbH
- Published
- 2021-10-29
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 3243-3250
- ISSN
- 1561-8633 (ISSN-L)
- 1684-9981
- OpenAlex
- W3208014816
- Cited by
- 27
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 0.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Natural hazards and earth system sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province (2020YFH0023)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Seismology and Earthquake Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Disaster Management and Resilience
- Social Sciences › Communication › Public Relations and Crisis Communication
- Keywords
- earthquake early warning, public awareness, Sichuan, disaster preparedness, seismic resilience, citizen participation
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