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FIRE SAFETY ENGINEERING GROUP |
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| The Faculty of Architecture, Computing & Humanities | |||||
| UNIVERSITY of GREENWICH |
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 Interoperability of data and procedures in large-scale multinational disaster response actions |
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Granted under the "Seventh Framework Programme" of the European
Commission Research area: SEC-2010.4.2-1 Interoperability of data, systems, tools and equipment Project Reference: 261726 |
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| Overview | |||
| IDIRA is a research project sponsored by the European Commission running four years (2011-2015), which gathers eighteen partners to focus on the interoperability of data and emergency procedures in response to large-scale disasters. In order to develop a new capability for more efficient multi-national and multi-organisational disaster response actions, a technological framework covering recommendations for operational procedures and a set of fixed, deployable and mobile components including data and voice communication assets will be developed and tested in real-life scenario trainings within Europe. These developments will be of value to on-scene commanders and those overseeing the response to a disaster in the command and control rooms as well as strategic and tactical civil protection staff. The fixed IDIRA infrastructure will support them with relevant information from manifold sources for the preparation and response phase. The deployable IDIRA infrastructure will perform as information hub and on-scene access point. It will be used during the response phase and will provide basic communication means as well as a shared information space for all involved forces integrating information about needs, resources and on-site conditions thus providing a shared operational picture enhanced by decision support functionality. The mobile components of IDIRA will be used by the commanding personnel on-scene for flexible interaction with the information space. | |||
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| Applications | |||
| This core result of IDIRA will take the form an architectural framework and an exemplary implementation of a Mobile Integrated Command and Control Structure (MICS) supporting co-ordinated large-scale disaster management. It is foreseen to make the best possible use of existing ideas, technology and standards, integrating available solutions and complementing them with new components where necessary. In actual operation, the components based on IDIRA solutions will be building on and be integrated with local command & control infrastructure and response procedures. As part of this effort, FSEG will facilitate the integration of the buildingEXODUS model into the MICS system. This will enable procedural responses to specific emergency scenarios to be examined in real-time; i.e. to examine the impact of the people movement suggested by procedural measures. This will provide additional evidence for responders and emergency managers in the design and implementation of the procedural measures in place. | |||
| FSEG Objectives and Contribution | |||
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A key UoG contribution to IDIRA requires the development of
urbanEXODUS (buildingEXODUS for large-scale incidents) in order
to inform the procedural response to specific disaster
scenarios. This requires both the enhancement of the EXODUS tool
and an understanding of the subject matter being addressed. In
order for the model to be suitably developed, an understanding
of the individual response is required (e.g. evacuee behaviour)
as well as the potential conditions that might be produced as
these individuals interact and are influenced by the conditions
around them (e.g. emergent crowd conditions). In addition, the
physical and situational space within which these actions and
conditions exist need to be considered to identify the factors
that influence them and to represent these behaviours within a
simulated environment. To address these considerations, the
following broad areas of development have been identified. |
[1] Low-Level: Agent Behaviour; [2] Factors that might influence / constrain Agent Behaviour; [3] High-Level: Potential Crowd Management Procedures; [4] Critical Conditions / Model Output
These describe the manner in which an individual interacts
with the social and physical landscape, and then responds to it.
Critically, the IDIRA project requires the user to impose
procedural measures upon the population (or upon staff), who
then respond accordingly. As such, these procedural measures
provide the overall objectives of the simulated agents (e.g.
which routes they use and which locations to target), focusing
analysis on the identification of the high-level conditions that
emerge. For instance, the user might be interested in
establishing the consequences of a population being told to
evacuate a structure. urbanEXODUS would then simulate the
movement of the population as instructed, with agents following
routes dictated by the high-level (global) procedures; however,
individual agent decisions will influence local navigation and
performance (e.g. the speeds adopted, etc.). |
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| In order for the urbanEXODUS model to function in the IDIRA scenarios of interest, a number of specific developments are planned. | |||
| Enhanced Performance (Speed and Scope) | |||
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Given the nature of the IDIRA, urbanEXODUS will need to address
large=scale incidents including large geometries and large
populations. This will require an increase in the capacity of
the model to represent the scale of the scenarios that are to be
represented. In addition, the model also needs to be able to
resolve the simulations in a relatively short period of time,
given the real-time requirements of the project. The model currently has two approaches to enhance scope and
speed: a parallel version of the model; and a hybrid approach
that allows the current fine nodal representation of the EXODUS
software to be combined with a coarse nodal approach, where
large areas of space can be represented in a simpler manner. A significant challenge to be addressed in IDIRA is to enable these two developments to work in unison if needed; i.e. to run the parallel and hybrid approaches simultaneously. |
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| Procedural Representation | |||
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The urbanEXODUS model (and the user) may need to impose
procedures upon the responding population (i.e. staff or
evacuees). This will allow the user and other IDIRA
components to represent key
scenario elements such as |
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| Agent Response | |||
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The agent sensitivity to their surrounding conditions
will be enhanced. In essence, the agents may need to
respond to the procedural, situational and informational
conditions faced in order to better represent their
response and the scenario conditions that develop. However, this is primarily designed to cope with building evacuations. The behavioural model will be enhanced to address large-scale crowd incidents. This is currently being enhanced in order to accommodate more sophisticated social / psychological / physical processes in the decision-making process. |
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| Information Exchange and Interoperability | |||
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IDIRA requires that the integrated version of urbanEXODUS will receive information from other IDIRA components, and that the model will then provide information to other IDIRA components. The information may be provided in a number of formats, be real-time or pre-existing and affect different aspects of the model. A considerable challenge will therefore be ensuring compatibility and real-time data exchange. EXODUS will be configured in accordance with the information provided. This process will either require some user intervention, or be automatic. Once EXODUS has been configured and run, the output generated will be feed through to other IDIRA components where an operator may accept or reject the guidance provided. The data will then need to be (a) in the correct format, (b) represent the key indicators, (c) be in the appropriate degree of detail, and (d) be provided at the appropriate time. The manner of this information exchange, the configuration of the model and the nature of the output produced requires significant development. | ||
| User Access | |||
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Depending on the path that the IDIRA project adopts in WP1
and WP2, there may be a need to employ the urbanEXODUS model as
part of live response and/or as part of staff and responder
training. As a contingency, enhancements to user access and
interactively are currently being investigated outside of the
IDIRA project. In effect, developments will be made to allow the
user to modify the conditions faced by the simulated agents
and/or the actions performed by simulated agents. This will
enable specific procedural changes to be assessed and also allow
the consequences of agent (user) actions to be better
understood. |
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| Scenarios Examined | |||
| FSEG will be involved in the design and implementation of three training exercises. These will reflect three representative applications of the MICS system in the field. These scenarios may represent emergency responses to flood, earthquake/fire and pandemic scenarios. Where the urbanEXODUS simulation tool might be used as part of the response (i.e. provide real-time information to the MICS system to help inform responder decisions), comparable scenarios will also be simulated in order to test the performance of the model. | |||
| Partners | |||
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Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft |
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Frequentis
AG |
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Brimatech
Services GmbH |
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National
and |
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ORGANISMOS
ANTISEISMIKOU SXEDIASMOUKAI PROSTASIAS (OASP/ EPPO EARTHQUAKE
PLANNING AND PROTECTION ORGANIZATION) |
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Deutsches
Rotes Kreuz Landesverband Sachsen e.V. |
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Intelligence for Environment and Security (IES Solutions) |
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Flexit
Sicherheitstechnik GmbH |
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Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz |
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Ministry of
National Defence |
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Ministero
dell’interno |
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Satways
PROIONTA KAI YPIRESIES TILEMATIKIS DIKTYAKON KAI
TILEPIKINONIAKON EFARMOGON ETAIRIA PERIORISMENIS EFTHINIS |
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TLP, spol.
s.r.o. |
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WAPPMER -
World Agency of Planetary Monitoring and Earthquake Risk
Reduction ASBL |
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NEA -
NOMARCHIAKI EPICHEIRISI ANAPTYXIS OIKONOMIKI - KOINONIKI -
POLISTISTIKI ANAPTYXI NOMOU ACHAIAS |
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KEMEA -
Center for Security Studies |
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| Further Information |
Tel:
+44 (020) 8331 8730 |
The IDIRA project is funded by the European Commission's 7th Framework Programme | |
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