SOCIAL MEDIA SENSING FOR FOREST WILDFIRES - A CASE STUDY FROM GREECE

<p>Climate change intensifies wildfire risk and impact, leading to more frequent and extreme events that profoundly affect the environment, society, economy, and vital ecosystem services. Wildfires have both consequences, such as loss of life, pollution, and damage, and beneficial effects, including organic material clearance, improved soil fertility, and eradication of invasive species. Technological advancements and mobile devices have proven invaluable for disaster readiness, prevention, and response, with successful real-life applications of social media and sensing tools in emergency management. In this paper, a social media sensing tool is presented that consists of a Social Media Analysis Toolkit, that includes fire event detection and visual analytics, enabling the collection, analysis, and visualization of fire-related tweets. The effectiveness and usability of the tool were tested for the pilot area of Evia in Greece. The social media sensing tool collected fire-related tweets the summer of 2021, analyzed them and filtered them in order to provide an enhanced situational awareness tool the massive wildfire incident that occurred in August 2021. The results illustrate a significant increase in Twitter activity during the wildfire period, demonstrating the tool's effectiveness in monitoring and analyzing social media data for wildfire detection.</p&gt

First responder prototype uniform and first aid for kids' device design

Emergency first responders often encounter unpredictable and dangerous environments when responding to calls. Fire, blood, chemicals, and debris are just a few of the many types of hazards a firefighter or law enforcement officer might be exposed to when answering a call. For example, first responders may encounter broken glass at the scene of a car accident or risk exposure to chemicals upon venturing into an enclosed space that housed a meth lab. The deliverables previously presented (D1.1 and D1.2), were intended to prepare the basis for the subject of this deliverable. The goal of T5.2 is to design, develop and prototype an improved duty, comfortable and performing uniform designed to provide first responders with better protection from the many hazards they encounter in their daily duties also in extreme conditions. At the same time the uniform has to monitor first responders’ health status and the environment conditions such as harmful gases, level of oxygen and temperature. The second objective of this task is to design and make a prototype of an innovative child rescue system. In most of the emergency cases, first responders usually need devices and kits for providing first aid support to injured people. In particular, it is important to provide them with a device like a paramedic tool for injured babies and kids able to carry and protect them, monitoring life functions before arriving at the emergency hospital. Similarly, a compact health condition monitoring device for adult victims will be developed that is easy and fast to place to the victims on the field and able to transmit their health condition to the Emergency Management System. The D5.2 describes the design process for the prototyping of the first responders’ suit, the first aid device for children and a health condition monitor for victims. The deliverable analyses also the requirements previously highlighted by the WP1, on which the project is based. Innovative materials and technologies used within the prototype, which have been developed with the help of the task partners, are also detailed