SECTOR: Secure Common Information Space for the Interoperability of First Responders

AbstractThe ever-growing human, economic and environmental losses due to natural and/or man-made disasters demand a systematic, holistic, inter-governmental and multi-disciplinary approach to the management of large-scale crisis. However, crisis management is usually coordinated by local authorities, supported by a variety of different national and international crisis management organizations, all acting relatively autonomously. Coordination actions usually adopt non-interoperable information management tools, due to the heterogeneity of the involved organizations, limiting or even hindering the coordination efforts. This paper introduces the efforts conducted in the context of the EU-funded project called SECTOR, which aims at establishing the foundations of future Collaborative Crisis Management (CCM) Information Spaces by expanding the European scientific knowledge base on (cross-border) multi-agency processes and their complications when setting-up and designing the enabling information systems

Interaction protocols for human-driven crisis resolution processes

This work aims at providing a crisis cell with process-oriented tools to manage crisis resolutions. Indeed, the crisis cell members have to define the crisis resolution process, adapt it to face crisis evolutions, and guide its execution. Crisis resolution processes are interaction-intensive processes: they not only coordinate the performance of tasks to be undertaken on the impacted world, but they also support regulatory interactions between possibly geographically distributed crisis cell members. In order to deal with such an interweaving, this paper proposes to use Interaction Protocols to both model formal interactions and ease a cooperative adaptation and guidance of crisis resolution processes. After highlighting the benefits of Interaction Protocols to support this human and collective dimension, the paper presents a protocol meta-model for their specification. It then shows how to suitably integrate specified protocols into crisis resolution processes and how to implement this conceptual framework into a service oriented architecture

Designing an Architectural Model of Crisis Management Information System for Natural Disasters in Iran

Introduction: The crisis management information system (CMIS) is a mission-critical system that enables the crisis management team for understanding, diagnosing, interpreting, analyzing, structuring, and making decisions faster by providing timely and high-quality information at the right time. The purpose of this research is to provide an architectural model of a CMIS for managing natural disasters in the process of finding trapped victims and relieving them. Materials and Methods: This applied study was conducted in 2020 in two stages. First, data on CMIS used in selected countries were collected from electronic resources and digital libraries and were then analyzed. Next, a preliminary model of CMIS architecture including three aspects of informational content, applications, and technological requirements, was prepared using these systems and experts’ interviews. Finally, the architectural model of CMIS validated by the Delphi technique and the focus group. Results: The analysis of experts in three rounds of Delphi test for three aspects of informational content, applications and technological requirements in the architectural model was performed with the presence of experts at the national level and the consensus rate over 75% was obtained for 7 modules and 28 proposed components of the CMIS. Conclusion: The architecture of information systems has a direct impact on the performance of these systems. Using an appropriate architecture for CMIS can be an effective step towards reducing the costs and consequences of crises in Iran and countries with similar conditions and have a significant impact on saving human lives in emergency situations

Blockchain Technology for Emergency Response

As unforeseen situations, emergencies threaten the environment, property, and people’s lives. Large emergencies are characterized by the demand for coordination of a variety of actors, such as civil defense or disaster relief. Communication and information exchange are crucial for coordination. Therefore, a solid, stable communication infrastructure is among the crucial factors for emergency response. New technologies that seem to ensure trustworthy communication must be evaluated constantly. Blockchain technology is widely applied in a broad variety of contexts and is commonly known for its decentralized and distributed governance. This is the motivation for the design and evaluation of a framework for the adoption of blockchain technology in the case of emergency response following a design science approach. Evaluation of the artifact using a specific evaluation framework clearly indicates the suitability of the case for application of blockchain technology

Survey on geographic visual display techniques in epidemiology: Taxonomy and characterization

Many works have been done on the topic of Geographic Visual Display with different objectives and approaches. There are studies to compare the traditional cartography techniques (the traditional term of Geographic Visual Display (GVD) without Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)) to Modern GIS which are also known as Geo-visualization, some literature differentiates and highlight the commonalities of features and architectures of different Geographic Visual Display tools (from layers and clusters to dot and color and more). Furthermore, with the existence of more advanced tools which support data exploration, few tasks are done to evaluate how those tools are used to handle complex and multivariate spatial-temporal data. Several test on usability and interactivity of tools toward user's needs or preferences, some even develop frameworks that address user's concern in a wide array of tasks, and others prove how these tools are able to stimulate the visual thought process and help in decision making or event prediction amongst decision-makers. This paper surveyed and categorized these research articles into 2 categories: Traditional Cartography (TC) and Geo-visualization (G). This paper will classify each category by their techniques and tasks that contribute to the significance of data representation in Geographic Visual Display and develop perspectives of each area and evaluating trends of Geographic Visual Display Techniques. Suggestions and ideas on what mechanisms can be used to improve and diversify Geographic Visual Display Techniques are provided at the end of this survey

Applying a living lab methodology to support innovation in education at a university in South Africa

The Living Lab paradigm creates open and inter-disciplinary environments where participants can interrogate challenges and co-create solutions. A successful Living Lab context incorporates a clear focus/vision, strong leadership, self-sustainability, a strong sense of community-owned challenges and the potential for sustainable community development. This paper discusses and outlines the elements of Living Labs, and how these have played a role in the establishment of a new Education Living Lab at a University in South Africa. Core values, stakeholders and key success factors of Living Labs are discussed. This is followed by the description of a case study of the establishment process of a Living Lab. The newly established Living Lab already shows success with collaborations and innovation between communities, industry, academia, learners and schools. This is illustrated in an application of the discussions on the Mobile Learning focus area - the first active sub-focus area within the Education Living Lab.http://www.td-sa.netam201

Development of an open-source mobile application for emergency data collection

This Master degree project identified disasters and emergencies as a global humanitarian and technological challenge. Emergency management organizations' need for access to accurate and up-to-date information about the emergency situation, to help respond to, recover from and mitigate the effects of disasters and emergencies, presents a challenge to the field of Geomatics. Today the use of remote sensing technologies presents an increasing number of solutions. There are types of spatial data, however, e.g. submerged, non-visual or otherwise hidden features that still require emergency field personnel and volunteers to interpret and record. By utilizing the increasing ubiquity and computational power of modern smartphones, in order to reach a large number of potential users and volunteers, a mobile application for emergency field data collection was developed. It was developed as a component of a system that, in order to be as collaborative, adaptable and accessible as possible, also to resource-poor organizations, was, with a minor exception, completely open-source licensed. Field trials were held that, due to low participation, could not conclusively evaluate the application and its general applicability to emergency field data collection. They did, however, provide an adequate proof-of-concept and showed that it was possible to apply the application and the implemented system to a specific emergency field data collection task. The system has great collaborative potential, achieved through openness, mobility, standards compliance, multi-source capability and adaptability. Its administrators are given a high degree of control that lets them adapt the system to suit the current users and situation and its flexibility make it widely applicable, not only for emergency management. From literature, the field trials and the experience gained while developing and using the application, some ideas for improving the application and the system were discussed and some future research topics were suggested.Under och efter katastrofer och nödsituationer samlas många olika organisationer för att hjälpa de drabbade. Det kan vara t.ex. polis, brandkår, sjukvård, eller elbolag som måste reparera ledningsnät. Vid större katastrofer kan myndigheter och internationella hjälporganisationer också behöva komma till undsättning. För att dessa organisationer ska kunna hjälpa till på ett effektivt sätt måste de ha tillgång till uppdaterad och korrekt information om krisläget. En stor del av den här informationen är kopplad till en specifik plats; den är geografisk. Idag får organisationer som jobbar med krishantering mycket av sin geografiska information från satelliter och flygbilder, men en del typer av information kan inte ses med satellit. Dessa kan vara t.ex. ledningar som ligger begravda under markytan eller mänskliga skador och behov. Därför behövs också någon form av system som personal och volontärer i fält kan använda för att rapportera till krisledningscentraler på ett effektivt sätt. Många sådana system har historiskt sett varit dyra att skaffa eftersom de krävt avancerade datorprogram och dyr teknisk utrustning till personalen i fält. Eftersom de dessutom många gånger varit svåra att använda har det varit svårt för krishanterings-organisationer att få ihop tillräckligt många personer att hjälpa till. Det här projektet syftade till att utveckla en mobil-app, d.v.s. ett program till moderna mobiltelefoner (s.k. smartphones). Målet med appen var att alla som äger en smartphone av rätt typ skulle kunna bidra till att samla viktig geografisk information till krisledningscentralen. Genom att låta appen vara en del av ett system som är helt gratis att använda och med öppen källkod, kan även organisationer med små resurser och lite pengar använda den. Tack vare att så många redan äger smartphones som de dessutom redan är vana vid att använda kan det bli lättare att få fler att kunna medverka. Utvecklingen av appen lyckades och hela systemet är gratis att använda och utgivet – nästan – helt med öppen källkod. Appen testades, men av för få deltagare för att kunna dra några definitiva slutsatser om systemet är lämpligt att använda för krishantering. Dock visade appen och systemet god potential under testerna och att det var möjligt att använda appen för att samla information i en katastrofsituation

GEOSYC – Um Sistema geocolaborativo síncrono

Dissertação de Mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaA resolução de problemas com base espacial que envolvam tomadas de decisão é normalmente realizada por um grupo de pessoas a trabalharem colaborativamente. Conforme o tempo de decisão que cada colaborador dispõe, as actividades colaborativas dividem-se em assíncronas, se não dependerem do tempo, ou síncronas, caso sejam realizadas ao mesmo tempo. A Geocolaboração insere-se neste trabalho cooperativo, ao mapear dados geograficamente relacionados para representações significativas. Para tal, recorre-se a ferramentas colaborativas desenvolvidas em Sistemas de Informação Geográfica (SIG) no contexto do Trabalho Cooperativo Suportado por Computadores (CSCW). Com o objectivo de fornecer novas perspectivas à Geocolaboração, o desenvolvimento de trabalhos nesta área tem crescido. Um desses trabalhos foi o que precedeu esta Dissertação, onde as actividades assíncronas foram tema dominante. Esta Dissertação vem dar seguimento a esse trabalho, expandindo-o para um modelo síncrono, e implementando um sistema que permita a todos os utilizadores comunicarem, visualizarem e partilharem conhecimento com vista a tomadas de decisão com um contexto geográfico. Para tal, são feitos dois estudos: um na área de Sistemas Colaborativos, para identificar os aspectos mais importantes que uma estrutura de um Sistema Geocolaborativo deve conter, e outro, na área de Sistemas Distribuídos, para escolher a melhor arquitectura que sirva de suporte a este sistema, assim como as suas características e formas de lidar com possíveis conflitos. Com o objectivo de contribuir para o avanço da implementação da Geocolaboração e oferecer apoio às actividades de tomada de decisão que debatam problemas geográficos, nomeadamente planeamento urbano, este sistema foi concebido com o apoio de investigadores experientes cujas actividades se enquadram no âmbito das contribuições previstas

Formalisation d'un environnement d'aide à l'analyse géovisuelle: Application à la sécurité et sûreté de la maritimisation de l'énergie

The maritime space is still a sensitive area due to many accidents and dangers, such as collisions or pirate attacks. In order to ensure the control of safety and security of this area, it is essential to study near real-time movement information (surveillance) or past events (analysis). Controllers and analysts are then faced to large sets of data, which must be studied with systems using maps and other visualizations. However, these tools are limited in terms of analysis capacities. Using geovisual analytics could be used to improve pattern identification, anomalies detection and knowledge discovery. However, due to the complexity of their use, most methods are still at the stage of research, and are not used yet in the operational word for studying maritime risks.In this context, we propose a geovisual analytics support system to guide users in the visualization and the analysis of maritime risks. Our research methodology is based on the formalization of use cases, of users and of several visualization methods. Ontologies and rules are used to create a knowledge-based system, to select adequate solutions for the visualization and the analysis of ships’ trajectories. Some examples for analyzing maritime risks are then presented to illustrate the use of such a system.L’espace maritime est encore aujourd’hui le contexte de nombreux accidents et dangers, comme des collisions ou des attaques pirates. Afin de garantir le contrôle de la sûreté et de la sécurité de cet espace, il est nécessaire d’étudier les données de mouvement en temps réel (surveillance) et les évènements passés (analyse). Contrôleurs et analystes sont alors confrontés à de grandes quantités de données, qui doivent être étudiées grâce à des systèmes utilisant des cartes et autres visualisations. Cependant, ces outils sont limités en termes de capacités d’analyse. L’utilisation de méthodes d’analyse géovisuelle pourrait alors faciliter la reconnaissance de motifs, la détection d’anomalies et la découverte de connaissances. Toutefois, en raison de leur complexité d’utilisation, plusieurs de ces méthodes n’ont pas dépassé le stade académique, et ne sont pas encore utilisées de manière opérationnelle dans l’étude des risques maritimes.Dans ce contexte, nous proposons un environnement d’aide à l’analyse géovisuelle, qui permet de guider l’utilisateur dans la visualisation et l’analyse d’informations pour l’étude des risques maritimes. Notre démarche de thèse se fonde sur la formalisation des cas d’utilisation, des utilisateurs et des méthodes de visualisation. Le recours à des ontologies et des règles permet de concevoir un système à base de connaissances, afin de proposer des méthodes adéquates pour la visualisation et l’analyse des trajectoires de navires. Nous illustrons cette proposition par plusieurs exemples d’analyse de risques en mer