{"id":230210,"date":"2026-03-02T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T19:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=230210"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:51:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:51:13","slug":"new-early-warning-system-in-colombia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/02\/new-early-warning-system-in-colombia\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> Pacific Disaster Center, collaborators launch new early warning system in Colombia"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"damaged
A landslide buries homes in the Silo\u00e9 neighborhood of Cali, Valle del Cauca in March 2021. With a population of 2.9 million people, Cali faces a high risk of landslide impacts. (Credit: Cali Mayor\u2019s Office)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The University of Â鶹´«Ã½\u2019s<\/span> Pacific Disaster Center (PDC<\/abbr>) has announced a groundbreaking technology and risk reduction collaboration with Twilio.org<\/a>, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC<\/abbr>) and the City of Cali, Colombia. The initiative aims to strengthen disaster early warning communications and landslide risk awareness to better protect some of Colombia’s most vulnerable communities.<\/p>\n

\"person
Colombia\u2019s UNGRD<\/abbr> responds to a February 6, 2026 landslide that buried several homes in the rural area of Mallama, Nari\u00f1o, Colombia. Landslides pose a major risk across the nation, including in the populous city of Cali, Colombia. (Credit: Unidad Nacional para la Gesti\u00f3n del Riesgo de Desastres (UNGRD))<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The project is designed to leverage PDC<\/abbr>\u2019s advanced DisasterAWARE platform, building operational capacity for the technology within Cali\u2019s disaster management organization, Sistema de Gesti\u00f3n de Riesgos de Emergencias y Desastres (SGRED<\/abbr>). Funded by Twilio.org—a platform that allows developers to embed voice, messaging, video and email—the program will ensure critical, life-saving information reaches residents quickly, clearly and in their native language.<\/p>\n

“This project breaks new ground for the Center in many ways: Our collaboration with Twilio.org, working with a large municipality like Cali, and new ways to communicate with those at most risk,” said Chris Chiesa, PDC<\/abbr> director of early warning solutions.<\/p>\n

Expanding capabilities<\/h2>\n
\"Colombia
A February 6, 2026 landslide that buried several homes in the rural area of Mallama, Nari\u00f1o, Colombia. (Credit: Unidad Nacional para la Gesti\u00f3n del Riesgo de Desastres (UNGRD)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A central component of the initiative is the expansion of DisasterAWARE Smart Alerts to include WhatsApp as a supported alert distribution channel. With billions of users worldwide, particularly in communities where mobile messaging is the primary means of receiving information, integrating WhatsApp will significantly extend PDC<\/abbr>\u2019s ability to deliver timely, actionable alerts directly to people. PDC<\/abbr> will also apply artificial intelligence technologies to automate the translation of alert content into Spanish.<\/p>\n

The project expands landslide risk analysis tools for early warning within the DisasterAWARE platform to mitigate risk for landslide-prone communities in Cali. By combining technology and risk analysis with capacity building, the initiative seeks to close critical information gaps that often place at-risk populations at greater danger during emergencies.<\/p>\n

PDC<\/abbr>\u2019s free Disaster Alert app already reaches more than 3 million subscribers worldwide. <\/p>\n

To read more go to the PDC<\/abbr> newsroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pacific Disaster Center helps strengthen early warnings and landslide risk awareness in Colombia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":230219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[1409,955,947],"class_list":["post-230210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-disaster-emergency","tag-pacific-disaster-center","tag-uh-system","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/system-pdc-colombia-early-warning-system-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230210"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":230232,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230210\/revisions\/230232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}