Disaster prevention with warning apps and websites – not just for floods
After the floods in Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate, the next floods are already looming. Concrete threats are no longer only reported by Katwarn.
This is how warnung.bund.de depicts Saarland on the evening of Whit Sunday.
(Image: BBK, Screenshot: heise online)
The devastating storms of the past few days could repeat themselves as early as next Tuesday or Wednesday after Whitsun, especially in Saarland. This is what meteorologist Özden Terli told the Saarbrücker Zeitung on Saturday, having already warned of a new low on Platform X two days earlier.
However, you don't just have to rely on sources such as the interview and the tweets or the weather reports on radio and television for such forecasts. For years, both official and private services have been available as smartphone apps and websites that issue warnings for your own location or previously defined municipalities. The best-known apps are probably Katwarn from the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS and NINA from the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK).
Data source MoWaS
Their core function, namely the warning of hazardous situations, was merged into the same data source in 2019. This was before the flood disaster in the Ahr valley, where the alarm systems failed. This data source is the modular warning system (MoWaS) of the federal government. However, the responsibilities for triggering a warning are not uniformly regulated in MoWaS.
In many regions, the local civil protection authority, a district administrator, the municipality or, if necessary, a disaster task force is responsible for this. This became apparent during the floods in Nuremberg in August 2023, where the city itself was unable to trigger a warning via cell broadcast, but was able to do so via NINA and Katwarn.
Warning weather from the DWD
It is therefore worthwhile not just relying on the warnings from the apps in the event of foreseeable hazards such as a weather situation that could bring heavy rain. It makes sense to monitor other sources in addition to, not as a replacement for, the two warning apps NINA and Katwarn. One such source is the WarnWetter app from the German weather service DWD. It shows very detailed overview maps and offers numerous filters and settings that can be used to trigger a personalized warning locally via the app. WarnWetter can also be used for other weather conditions such as forest fire danger. As with NINA and Katwarn, the basic version is free of charge, with a one-off charge of 2.49 euros for extended weather reports. According to a ruling by the Federal Court of Justice, this must be the case so as not to put private weather services at a disadvantage.
Municipal alternative Biwapp
One such private alternative, albeit not for weather reports, is Biwapp (Bürger Info- und Warn-App) from Marktplatz GmbH in Lüneburg. It also displays reports from MoWaS, but can also be integrated into websites for local authorities, for example. Local authorities can also use the system to create their own warnings, which then flow back into MoWaS and are sent via other warning apps. It is therefore not an application that is purely tied to the smartphone. However, emergency calls can also be started on the cell phone via Biwapp using the device's phone function.
MoWaS on the PC
The MoWaS entries can also be clearly displayed on the large screen of a PC. The BBK website warnung.bund.de is used for this purpose. The individual warnings and the relevant regions are displayed on a map of Germany. You can zoom in and out by double-clicking or using the icons at the top right, not using the mouse wheel. As in the NINA app, there are also official recommendations for action in addition to the warning text. An RSS feed can also be subscribed to via the website, which can be narrowed down by district.
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