Peter Anderson

During the 2003 wildland-urban interface fire events in the interior of British Columbia, telecommunications lines and radio repeaters were destroyed by the fires, resulting in loss of critical communications links. In several cases, communities became isolated from the rest of the province – not because of direct physical impacts of the fires, but because of total loss of communications and power. This presentation will examine how these events contributed to the design and construction of a new Advanced Mobile Emergency Communications vehicle developed at Simon Fraser University to support British Columbia needs.

Peter Anderson is Director of the Telematics Research Lab and Associate Professor of Communication at Simon Fraser University. He has an international background in consulting, research and teaching in the fields of telecommunications, media, information systems, and communications policy. During the last decade and a half, he has participated in the design and implementation of electronic communications and information systems for disaster management in collaboration with the United Nations, NATO, scientific, government and non-government disaster management organizations and representatives. From 1996-2000, he served as a member of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction program.

Examples of more recent emergency communications policy research include a major study of the use of cellular telephones within the Canadian emergency management community and a review of the Canadian West Coast Tsunami Warning System. In February 2005, he traveled to Sri Lanka during the immediate aftermath of the tsunami tragedy to assist in the drafting of a concept paper for a new national all-hazards warning system in Sri Lanka. His current applied research focuses on the development of virtual emergency management information systems that integrate satellite and terrestrial networks to allow emergency managers and responders to remain in critical decision-making processes regardless of physical location.

He has delivered lectures, seminars, workshops and presentations at numerous conferences and professional events in Canada and abroad, including China, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Chile, Japan, Europe, Africa, Australia, and the United States. He is the author and co-author of a number of publications and studies related to emergency communication policy, networking and planning. Professor Anderson also teaches accredited courses and supervises graduate research in communications policy and emergency communication.

His Amateur Radio call-sign is VE7PSA.