ABSTRACT
During the last decades it has been observed that the number of deaths and damages caused by natural hazards has increased worldwide. In order to diminish population risks, several countries have developed systems to widely disseminate emergency alerts. These systems involve an important technological research in the communication field, but it is also necessary to develop and apply procedures towards the optimal construction of alert messages and their dissemination when facing the need of warning the population at risk in case of a forecasted, impending or already in place hazard event. With this last purpose a compilation of best practices in alerting population is presented.
