ANYWHERE
A H2020 project to enhance EnhANcing emergencY management and response to extreme WeatHER and climate Events
| Business | Time | Project Coordinator | Funding Scheme |
|---|---|---|---|
| T&I | Start date: 01/06/2016 End date: 31/08/2019 |
UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA | H2020-DRS-2015-IA - Innovation action |
Challenge
Day by day extreme weather and climate events are causing several hazards affecting our society, and when interacting with exposed and vulnerable human and natural systems they can lead to disasters.
ANYWHERE (http://anywhere-h2020.eu/) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 700099 in order to establish a pan-European platform on extreme climate risks that will enable to identify, in a number of geographic regions, critical situations that could lead to loss of life and economic damages.
Such early-warning should enable to improve protection measures and, in case of catastrophic situations, improving the coordination of rescue operations.
The platform will therefore serve as decision-making tool for various authorities when faced with a situation of crisis, and will provide state-of-the-art early warning systems to help exposed populations avert disaster.
Approach
In the framework of ANYWHERE, we are designing and testing different solutions able to support the Emergency Operators and transportation stakeholders affected by weather disruptive events.
In particular, for the emergency operators, RINA is developing a platform able to support them in the implementation of actions related to their emergency procedures effectively presented with step by step checklists without affecting nor changing procedures and legacy systems in place.
The solution is designed to be integrated in the already available “procedure-in-use” at the operation center and it also implements the latest weather forecast and impact estimation on the road network.
During severe weather events, the roads can be affected and their capacities collapsed in critical points. In these situations, distribution tasks are considered in many EU countries among the priorities services. A specific service has been designed for the logistics activities adapted to high impact weather events such as snow and flood.
By cross-correlating the weather forecasts (level of snow, precipitation, etc.) and a representative model of the road network, the service will be able to estimate the extension of the affected area and in particular of the network capacity. The service allows simulation and evaluation of different transport scenarios and logistic configurations, analysing the demand assignment, the modal diversion, considering a multi and intermodal supply.
The Platform is:
- Web based and not platform and technology dependent for users
- Easy to update
- Tracking of decision and actions
- Able to integrate multiple and different operators assignment
- Quick for calls and messages
- Easy to scale
Conclusion
The impact potential of the availability of the ANYWHERE outcomes is twofold. First, lives could be saved thanks to earlier and more efficient early warning systems and decision support systems, accompanied by particularly tailored online services developed to support self-preparedness, self-protection, and self-response of citizens. Second, whilst most of the economic impacts are difficult if not impossible to be avoided, its severity in terms of impact could be reduced in many cases by thoroughly improving the prevention by earlier prediction, together with more efficient response support systems helping to better coordinate the emergency actions.
The main expected impact is to offer advanced technological innovations to Civil Protections, first responders and other emergency authorities in their management operation before and during W&C disasters and emergencies, specifically supporting them in their decision-making processes to allow faster and more effective responses.
