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This paper presents findings from ongoing research that explores the ability to use Micro-Electromechanical Systems (MEMS)-based technologies and various digital communication protocols for earthquake early warning (EEW). The paper proposes a step-by-step guide to developing a unique EEW network architecture driven by a Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN)-based hole-punching technology consisting of MEMS-based, low-cost accelerometers hosted by the general public. In contrast with most centralised cloud-based approaches, a node-level decentralised data-processing is used to generate warnings with the support of a modified Propagation of Local Undamped Motion (PLUM)-based EEW algorithm. With several hypothetical earthquake scenarios, experiments were conducted to evaluate the system latencies of the proposed decentralised EEW architecture and its performance was compared with traditional centralised EEW architecture. The results from sixty simulations show that the SD-WAN-based hole-punching architecture supported by the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) creates the optimum alerting conditions. Furthermore, the results provide clear evidence to show that the decentralised EEW system architecture can outperform the centralised EEW architecture and can save valuable seconds when generating EEW, leading to a longer warning time for the end-user. This paper contributes to the EEW literature by proposing a novel EEW network architecture.

Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines on 8 November 2013 with maximum sustained winds of 235 kilometres per hour, adversely affecting at least 11 million people and displacing some 673,000 in the central regions of the country. The disaster clearly overwhelmed the Philippine government despite its seemingly well-crafted disaster management plan. Using timelines of different organisations, this paper identifies gaps in the government's response, mainly due to its failure in coordinating and managing relief operations, which adversely affected its effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of critical goods and services following the disaster. The paper also demonstrates how non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the United Nations, foreign governments and other organisations provided assistance, mainly through aid niching, to cover the government's shortcomings. The paper recommends a paradigm shift in the government's disaster response by integrating collaborative arrangements between government agencies and NGOs, and giving local governments the lead role, with the national government as support, in disaster planning and response.

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