Functional evaluation of civil protection mobile applications in the context of decision support for public alerts

Providing the public with fast, accurate and reliable information is a key element of civil protection in the prevention and management of emergencies. This study presents an international overview of civil protection mobile applications used in different countries, analyses their main functional characteristics and evaluates their role in alerting and informing the public. The study proposes a functional evaluation framework for civil protection mobile applications based on a weighted, multi-criteria evaluation approach. The framework evaluates localised alerts, monitoring integration, preparedness support, offline accessibility and communication depth. Civil protection applications used internationally are analysed and compared using a standardised scoring method. Based on the comparative analysis, decision-making implications are derived for the development of a civil protection mobile application tailored to the national civil protection organisation. The results confirm the role of mobile applications as complementary elements to traditional alerting infrastructures and provide practical guidance for system-level integration and future developments.