"Kazakhstan showcases digital overhaul of its CHC infrastructure"
The Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) in Kazakhstan has undergone an overhaul, incorporating comprehensive organizational changes, technological modernization, and digital services to beef up crisis management efficiency and coordination of emergency response methods.
Spearheading this transformation is an upgraded situation room at the Strategic Planning and Operational Management Command Center. This nerve center of digital services equips emergency responders with tools for predicting, modeling, and analyzing responses to potential disasters—both natural and technological—as well as assessing their aftermath.
Photo Credit: MES Press Service
Enter "GIS EM," a digital service implemented for emergency situation forecasting. This system, combined with JSC "Kazakhstan Gharysh Sapary's GeoPortal," is used to model flood situations and take prompt action to prevent residential flooding, disruptions in everyday activities, and swift rescues and evacuations. The system also includes subsystems for fire monitoring and forecasting like "Pyrology," tailored for different environments like taiga, peat, and deciduous forests.
Photo Credit: MES Press Service
Another digital tool, the "Personnel" system, has been rolled out on the 1C platform to streamline personnel accounting and movement within MES, its subordinate units, and territorial departments. This digitization effort seeks to boost transparency of personnel movements, decrease personnel unit workload, and empower leaders to access real-time key performance metrics, helping them manage more effectively and achieve greater operational efficiency, transparency, personal data access, and swifter resolution of personnel matters.
A call center 112 equipped with advanced AI is under development to serve emergency management centers in regional departments, cities of national significance, and the capital within the framework of the 112 Single Duty Dispatch Service project. Work is currently in progress with communication service providers to implement a pilot project based on Almaty's emergency planning and management center. This initiative aims to accelerate responses to incoming civilian messages during emergency situations and foster trust in civil defense organizations among the populace.
Photo Credit: Press Service of the EMERCOM of Russia
Development of a national population notification system is well underway, including design of a technical scheme for siren-speaker devices. This software will play a crucial role in enhancing civilian safety and readiness for emergency situations.
The "112KZ" mobile app for instant notification of emergencies is already in demo phase, keeping citizens updated about potential threats such as natural disasters, accidents, or social unrest. This application will be instrumental in improving civilian safety and readiness.
The MES has also implemented several "digital initiatives." Geographical Information Systems (GIS) like 2GIS and Yandex now provide electronic maps, pinpointing evacuation points, collection points, and warming points, expanding public awareness of assistance locations in crisis situations and enabling navigation routes to these points.
Photo Credit: Press Service of the EMERCOM of Russia
A pilot launch of the Cell Broadcast system for instant message delivery to mobile devices has been executed. This system allows mass message delivery to a multitude of subscribers simultaneously, irrespective of network congestion, ensuring consistent message delivery even during peak traffic periods.
To prevent emergency situations, AI-powered cameras monitor forest conditions in real-time, identifying signs of potential fires, smoke, and issuing alerts. AI-equipped unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are also widely utilized in search and rescue operations, capturing images of open territories that are subsequently processed by AI to locate missing individuals. Such technology has proven effective and will continue to be employed in future search and rescue missions.
MES plans to continue optimizing digital solutions to improve safety and efficiency during emergency situations.
In addition to the above, the Ministry of Emergency Situations in Kazakhstan leverages digital infrastructure to provide accurate and timely information to the public during crises. The Ministry disperses photo, video, and social media materials to media outlets to promote transparency during emergencies like floods and other crises[1]. Kazakhstan's broader advances in digital governance and cybersecurity infrastructure may hint at future developments towards more sophisticated systems for monitoring and forecasting emergency situations[2].
The integrated use of digital media, messaging services, and incident readiness and response frameworks, potentially including rapid containment, incident response planning, expert consultation, forensic incident analysis, and remediation efforts, contributes to effective crisis management and handle emergency situations[5].
In the context of enhancing emergency response methods, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) in Kazakhstan also leverages technology to disseminate information, utilizing photo, video, and social media materials to promote transparency during crises such as floods or other disasters.
Moreover, the MES employs technology in sports scenarios, using AI-powered cameras and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to assist in search and rescue operations, capturing images of open territories and processing them with AI to locate missing individuals, highlighting the potential of technology beyond emergency situations.
