SRUUK: How Croatia's Early Warning System for Crises Works
Since August 2023, SRUUK has been sending alerts to citizens and visitors via SMS and Cell Broadcast, with full protection of personal data.
Since August 2023, SRUUK has been sending alerts to citizens and visitors via SMS and Cell Broadcast, with full protection of personal data.
Natural disasters, major accidents, and epidemics cannot always be avoided, but timely notification can drastically reduce their consequences. That is precisely why the Republic of Croatia launched SRUUK, a system for early warning and crisis management, a few years ago, with a value exceeding 8 million euros.
SRUUK has been in use in Croatia since August 2023, designed to provide citizens and civil protection participants with the fastest possible information about dangers and the measures to be taken. The system covers a wide range of emergency situations, including natural disasters, major incidents, epidemics, and other threats to people, their property, or the environment.
Alerts are not only sent to residents of the affected area. Notifications can also be received by individuals who happen to be in that location, including foreigners using roaming services. Whether you are a permanent resident or just passing through, if your device is connected to a mobile network, the alert can reach your phone.
One of the most important functions of SRUUK is not just to notify about danger but also to send specific instructions to citizens. Depending on the nature of the threat, the message content can provide guidance on behavior and actions that reduce the damage from the crisis event.
At the same time, information is also sent to civil protection members in the area, which should speed up response and improve mitigation efforts. SRUUK is not designed to replace sirens or other warning methods but to support them. When there is a serious threat, all available warning channels can be used, and messages can be delivered via SMS or Cell Broadcast technology, depending on the level of threat.
Behind the system is the Ministry of the Interior, which is the project leader. Funding for SRUUK was secured from the European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion. The total project cost was 8.361 million euros, with the EU providing 7.107 million euros in grants. The purpose of this investment was to strengthen Croatia's capacity for timely action in the event of disasters and major accidents.
Information about mobile phones in the affected area is refreshed every five minutes. The smallest unit to which an alert can be sent is a municipality or city, while in larger cities, messages can be targeted at specific city districts.
SRUUK covers users of all mobile operators in the affected area, including foreign users in roaming. A device connected to the mobile network can receive a notification, and the danger alert cannot be turned off.
Importantly, the system does not compromise citizens' privacy. The Ministry of the Interior has no insight into which specific devices are present in the affected area or who their owners are. Mobile operators have data about devices, but when sending notifications, the data is anonymized, and personal information remains within the operator's system.
