Lead organisation
AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH.
You must log in in order to see contact information. If you don't have an account, you can ask for one on this form.
Trial Description

At the Civil Protection Center in Palmanova, Italy, the research project EPISECC* , funded by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7, demonstrated innovative information technology to enable between public safety agencies.  The electronic information exchange between these stakeholders will aide them in to large disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, forest fires, technical incidents, or terrorist attacks.The field took place on May 11-12, 2017 and tested the of information systems from the civil protection authority, fire fighters, mountain rescue teams and paramedics of Italy, Slovenia and Austria. The EPISECC project aims to develop the concept of a “Common Information Space” to become the key element in a future integrated Pan-European and capacity.

The final goal of this was to validate the architecture of the "Common InformationSpace" (CIS) as well as the taxonomy and antologic model as developed and defined in the EPISECC project. The consortium jointly developed a SW-prototype implementing these concepts.

Tools of EPISECC partners and of external parties, which are actually used by responder organisations, are sharing information, using the CIS adaptors. Semantic services enable the mutual understanding of information exchanged cross language and culture barriers between the organisations involved in disaster response. The data protection concept allows to establish sub-groups of CIS participants (Cooperation Group Online Room CGOR) who exclusively share information between the stakeholders involved in one incident.

Common understanding of the information exchanged in response operations

Different organisations and countries that are not collaborating in daily business may have to work together in large during which a common understanding of the situation and access to the latest information is crucial. The barriers between units come from different natural languages but mainly from different and taxonomy. There is ongoing work towards symbology harmonisation (INDIGO) but they are not implemented widely. Priority areas where common is needed have to be identified and a standard terminology needs to be agreed in such areas. Tools and mechanisms to support the dissemination and implementation of common terminology are necessary, as well as exercises to support the harmonisation of terminology or the mutual understanding of different terminologies.

References in the literature: this is well recognised and detailed in the literature

Consultation and coordination across state agencies, local authorities, private entities, and volunteer organisations in develop crisis communications and information management documentation and procedures will promote adequate access to information (e.g. on a need to know basis) and commonality in terminology, symbology and, hence, understanding of a crisis situation.
Requirements towards crisis communications capabilities, coordinated among stakeholders, need to seek commonality or harmonisation of terminology, symbols, representation of crisis management information, and data exchange formats.
Established principles of information sharing need to promote standardized, common or harmonised terminology, symbology, formats and representation of crisis management information.
Standards, common or harmonised terms, symbols, formats and representations need to be established in internal--horizontal and vertical--coordination.
Standards, common or harmonised terms, symbols, formats and representations need to be followed in the establishment of crisis management rules and standard operating procedures.
Commonality or harmonisation of training standards and modes will promote common understanding of the information exchanged in crisis operations.

Shortcomings in the ability to exchange crisis-related information among agencies and organizations

A that supports the exchange of -related information among all organizations involved in .

‘measured’ flood maps of the area after the dike breach for assessing the situation (including
combining the flood maps with information (maps) in LCMS). Assessing the effect of the flood on
traffic management (for formulation of possible evacuation strategies).

Exchanging crisis-related information among agencies and organizations

Crisis Communications and Information Management (CCIM) capabilities and procedures of stakeholders need to be understood so that interoperability issues are identified in a timely manner.
Coordination across state agencies, local authorities, private entities, and volunteer organisations is needed in developing crisis communications and information management documentation and procedures.
Consultation and coordination among stakeholders in the development of communications policy, plans and procedures will facilitate the exchange of crisis relevant information prior to and during a crisis.
Early identification of information exchange requirements will guide the development of communications capabilities and interfaces and thus facilitate interoperability.
Coordination among stakeholders in defining procedures for information management will facilitate the exchange of crisis related information.
The provision of communications and information support by certain organisations (e.g. professional responders) to other stakeholders (e.g. local authorities, private actors, volunteers) will facilitate interoperability.
Overarching objective

Overarching objective of the EPISECC  was to validate the concept and architecture of the "Common InformationSpace" (CIS) and the related taxonomy and ontologic model that were developed and defined in the EPISECC project. 

Validation of the "Common Information Space" concept

The final goal of this was to validate the architecture of the "Common InformationSpace" (CIS) as well as the taxonomy and antologic model as developed and defined in the EPISECC project. The consortium jointly developed a SW-prototype implementing these concepts.

 

Test the feasibility of seamless exchange of information using the EPISECC CIS adaptors

Test the interaction of the tools used by the EPISECC partners and the CSI adapters for the seamless exchange of information.

Overarching scenario

EPISECC validated the feasibility of the seamless electronic information exchange between civil protection authority, fire fighters, mountain rescue teams and paramedics of Italy, Slovenia and Austria. The simulates the  to large disasters, such as floods, earthquakes, forest fires, technical incidents, or terrorist attacks.

The starting situation for the EPISECC is defined as follows:

                    On May 11th 2017 at 09:59 local time an earthquake is happening in the province
                    of Udine in the region Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

                    The epicentre is located in the municipality of Drenchia at the coordinates
                    46°10'16.1"N   13°37'32.5"E.

                    The earthquake has a magnitude of 6.2 at a depth of 10.54 km.

This earthquake has fatal impact on the whole region including Italy, Slovenia and Austria. The main operational area for the operations performed by the responders within the EPISECC is the border region between Italy and Slovenia at the cities of Gorizia and Nova Gorica. The cascading effects relevant for the EPISECC scenario in this area are:

  • Collapsed buildings
  • Rock falls
  • Obstructed roads
  • Fire in commercial areas
  • People trapped under the rubble
  • Injured people
  • Fatalities

Operating Sites

In Goriza (IT) three different operating sites will be involved:

  • Fortress of Gorizia
  • University Centre of Gorizia
  • Commercial area in Gorizia

In Nova Gorica (SLO) one operating site will be played:

  • Commercial area in Nova Gorica

The operating sites have been chosen based on the requirements arising from the uses cases, the storyboard and the 2 hours time frame for the scenario play:

  • Cross-border scenario with engagement of international responders
  • Integration of field equipment such as radios and smart devices
  • Real time tracking of field resources
Trial type
Solution Test
Crisis size
Cross-border
Crisis Cycle Phase
Response
Trial Location
Italy
Trial illustrations
Operating sites. Source: EPISECC, Deliverable D6.2. - Proof of Concept Implementation, page 18
Incident category
Collapses (loss of critical infrastructure)
Earthquake
Fires
Research Question

Can the EPISECC backbone and the CIS adapters support the seamless communication of CAP messages over the heterogeneous systems that are used in XXX sufficiently well to satisfy the stakeholders?

Research Question

Can all the differnt Tools/ actors be connected without any problems?
How much effort is needed to connect different systems?

Trialed solutions
No content has been made publicly available so far.
No content has been made publicly available so far.
eu Portfolio of Solutions web site has been initially developed in the scope of DRIVER+ project. Today, the service is managed by AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH., for the benefit of the European Management. PoS is endorsed and supported by the Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA) as well as by the STAMINA and TeamAware H2020 projects.