Emergency management in the highways of the future. A performance-based multilayered ITS architecture design proposal

Emergency management is one of the key aspects within the day-to-day operation procedures in a highway. Efficiency in the overall response in case of an incident is paramount in reducing the consequences of any incident. However, the approach of highway operators to the issue of incident management is still usually far from a systematic, standardized way. This paper attempts to address the issue and provide several hints on why this happens, and a proposal on how the situation could be overcome. An introduction to a performance based approach to a general system specification will be described, and then applied to a particular road emergency management task. A real testbed has been implemented to show the validity of the proposed approach. Ad-hoc sensors (one camera and one laser scanner) were efficiently deployed to acquire data, and advanced fusion techniques applied at the processing stage to reach the specific user requirements in terms of functionality, flexibility and accuracy

Are Atmospheric Situations Now More Favourable for Heavy Rainfall in the Spanish Mediterranean? Analysis of Episodes in the Alicante Province (1981–2020)

Intense rainfall (≥100 mm/24 h) constitutes the most frequent atmospheric hazard on Spain’s Mediterranean coast; this phenomenon causes serious damage to property and kills or injures inhabitants. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in its latest report in 2022, indicates that in the current climate change scenario, these episodes will become more frequent, hence the importance of analysing and characterising them. The present paper analysed intense rainfall episodes in the central sector of the Spanish Mediterranean coast (province of Alicante) in the 1981–2020 period. A total of 129 episodes were identified which have affected different areas of this province. The rainfall events were analysed by means of three synoptic classification methods subjective/manual and objective/automatic in order to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the two modalities. The main objective was to identify the most favourable atmospheric situations triggering intense rainfall in the study area. The period with the highest propensity for these episodes to develop was identified, as well as the geographical areas most affected in the study period. Autumn concentrates the biggest amount of intense rainfall episodes throughout the year. Herein, we attempt to demonstrate the relationship between atmospheric situation, accumulated rainfall volume, geographical area affected, and the most favourable period of the year for the development of these events. The main results of the synoptic analysis of extreme events show the coincidence, in the three classification methods used, that the existence of instability in the middle and upper layers of the atmosphere (DANA and troughs) and humid and warm E and NE surface flows are decisive. In addition, the warming recorded in the waters of the western Mediterranean in recent decades is related to extreme events.This research was funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Research of the University of Alicante (predoctoral fellowship to E.S.-A., reference FPUA2019-54), the Interuniversity Institute of Geography of the University of Alicante (Research Groups Water and Territory; Climate and Spatial Planning) and Proyecto EXE (PID2020-116860RB-C21) financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Fondos FEDER (IP: J.Martin-Vide)

An ITS architecture specification - The FOTsis project experience

The recent continuous development of Cooperative ITS has resulted in several initiatives which focus on different parts of the Cooperative environment landscape. The FOTsis project focuses on the infrastructure side of the Cooperative environment and will deploy and test 7 services designed to maximise the benefits of the integration of the road operator and infrastructure-based information providers into the ITS environment. This integration can take place in any of the stages of data collection, processing and actuations of the services, but also support and trigger external tasks such as operations of the emergency response entities, etc. This paper describes the current status of the project and focuses on the specification of the supporting architecture to the services tested: references, a brief outline of the requirements’ definition, and the FOTsis architecture proposal, with some conclusions about the architecture tests conducted. The outlook on the project’s next steps is given in the last section of the paper

Especificación de arquitecturas ITS: la experiencia del proyecto FOTsis

El constante desarrollo reciente de los ITS Cooperativos ha resultado en diferentes iniciativas que se centran en distintos aspectos del entorno Cooperativo. El proyecto Europeo FOTsis perteneciente al FP7 gira alrededor de la infraestructura de este entorno. El proyecto tiene como objetivos básicos desplegar y validar 7 servicios que han sido diseñados para maximizar los beneficios de la integración de diferentes entidades basadas en la infraestructura en el paisaje ITS: el operador de infraestructura, proveedores de datos externos, entre otros. Este artículo describe el estado actual del proyecto, destacando la especificación de la arquitectura ITS que lo sustenta: referencias, una breve reseña a la definición de los requisitos de los servicios, y finalmente la propuesta de arquitectura FOTsis, junto con algunas conclusiones sobre las pruebas realizadas sobre la arquitectura propuesta. Al final del artículo se da una visión general de los próximos pasos en el proyecto

Cooperative ITS communications architecture: the FOTsis project approach and beyond

With the continuous development in the fields of sensors, advanced data processing and communications, road transport oriented intelligent applications and services have reached a significant maturity and complexity. Cooperative ITS services, based on the idea of sharing accurate information among road entities, are currently being tested on a large scale by different initiatives. The field operational test (FOTsis) project contributes to the deployment environment with services that involve a significant number of entities out of the vehicle. This made necessary the specification of an architecture which, based on the ISO ITS station reference architecture for communications, could support the requirements of the services proposed in the project. During the project, internal implementation tests and external interoperability tests have resulted in the validation of the proposed architecture. At the same time, these tests have had as a result the awareness of areas in which the FOTsis architecture could be completed, mainly to take full advantage of all the emerging and foreseeable data sources which may be relevant in the road environment. In this study, the authors will outline an approach that, based on the current cooperative ITS architecture and the SmartCities and Internet Of Things (IoT) architectures, can provide a common convergence platform to maximise the information available for ITS purposes

Floods and Adaptation to Climate Change in Tourist Areas: Management Experiences on the Coast of the Province of Alicante (Spain)

One of the principal challenges for cities on the Mediterranean coast is the management of urban runoff after episodes of intense rainfall. This problem is aggravated by the effects of climate change, with the increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather phenomena in this region. In light of this situation, the local governments, in collaboration with the concessionaire companies providing supply and sewage services, are committed to adopting measures aimed at a more efficient management of non-conventional water resources. Examples of good practice for reducing urban flood risk and adapting to climate change are those actions developed in the tourist municipalities of Alicante, Torrevieja, and Benidorm, where measures have been implemented or have been planned and integrated with green spaces, with a commitment to sustainability, such as sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) or Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs). This study analyses these case studies, based on a detailed review of the technical projects that contemplate each of the actions. Furthermore, several field trips were made with technical personnel who are familiar with the measures adopted. The results show that the implementation of these systems contributes to advancing the reduction of urban flood risk and the adaptation to climate change, creating more resilient and safer urban spaces for the citizens residing in them.This research was funded by the Vice-Rectorate for Research of the University of Alicante (predoctoral fellowship to E.S.-A., reference FPUA2019-54), the Interuniversity Institute of Geography of the University of Alicante (Research Groups Water and Territory) and Research Group Environment, Society and Landscape Research Group (MedsPai). CIBIO Research Institute (Centro Iberoamericano de la Biodiversidad)

Good practices in the handling and management of rainwater. Case studies in the Bajo Segura region

La escorrentía urbana y sus consecuencias se han convertido en uno de los grandes problemas de las ciudades del sureste peninsular. Su gestión ha sufrido en los últimos años un cambio de paradigma, apostando cada vez más por los Sistemas Urbanos de Drenaje Sostenible (SUDS) y las Soluciones Basadas en la Naturaleza (SBN). Algunos de los últimos ejemplos desarrollados han sido ejecutados en varios municipios de la comarca alicantina del Bajo Segura, como Rojales, Daya Nueva y San Fulgencio, que han utilizado diversas metodologías integradas en espacios o zonas verdes. Con esta investigación se pretende dar a conocer estas infraestructuras y su funcionamiento, a partir de las entrevistas y salidas de campo realizadas con el personal encargado de la ejecución de estos proyectos. Su entrada en funcionamiento supone una apuesta por una gestión hídrica más eficiente y respetuosa con el medio ambiente basada en la reutilización del agua.Urban runoff and its consequences have become one of the major problems in the cities of the southeast of the peninsula. Its management has undergone a paradigm shift in recent years, with an increasing focus on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). Some of the latest examples developed have been implemented in several municipalities in the Bajo Segura region of Alicante, such as Rojales, Daya Nueva and San Fulgencio, which have used various methodologies integrated into green spaces or areas. The aim of this research is to provide information on these infrastructures and how they work, based on interviews and field trips carried out with the personnel responsible for the execution of these projects. Their entry into operation represents a commitment to more efficient and environmentally friendly water management based on the reuse of water.Esta investigación es resultado de la obtención de una beca de formación de profesorado universitario (FPU) de la que la primera autora es beneficiaria, (FPUA2019-54) por parte del Vicerrectorado de Investigación de la Universidad de Alicante, y se inserta en el proyecto de investigación “Cambio climático y agua: los recursos no convencionales como estrategia adaptativa para incrementar la resiliencia de los usos agrícolas y urbano-turísticos en el litoral de Alicante” (AICO/2020/253) financiado por la Generalitat Valenciana

Multisensor data fusion for accurate modelling of mobile objects

In the last decade, multi-sensor data fusion has become a broadly demanded discipline to achieve advanced solutions that can be applied in many real world situations, either civil or military. In Defence,accurate detection of all target objects is fundamental to maintaining situational awareness, to locating threats in the battlefield and to identifying and protecting strategically own forces. Civil applications, such as traffic monitoring, have similar requirements in terms of object detection and reliable identification of incidents in order to ensure safety of road users. Thanks to the appropriate data fusion technique, we can give these systems the power to exploit automatically all relevant information from multiple sources to face for instance mission needs or assess daily supervision operations. This paper focuses on its application to active vehicle monitoring in a particular area of high density traffic, and how it is redirecting the research activities being carried out in the computer vision, signal processing and machine learning fields for improving the effectiveness of detection and tracking in ground surveillance scenarios in general. Specifically, our system proposes fusion of data at a feature level which is extracted from a video camera and a laser scanner. In addition, a stochastic-based tracking which introduces some particle filters into the model to deal with uncertainty due to occlusions and improve the previous detection output is presented in this paper. It has been shown that this computer vision tracker contributes to detect objects even under poor visual information. Finally, in the same way that humans are able to analyze both temporal and spatial relations among items in the scene to associate them a meaning, once the targets objects have been correctly detected and tracked, it is desired that machines can provide a trustworthy description of what is happening in the scene under surveillance. Accomplishing so ambitious task requires a machine learning-based hierarchic architecture able to extract and analyse behaviours at different abstraction levels. A real experimental testbed has been implemented for the evaluation of the proposed modular system. Such scenario is a closed circuit where real traffic situations can be simulated. First results have shown the strength of the proposed system

Urban mobility data management: The OPTICITIES project and the Madrid standartization proposal

Urban mobility is an increasingly complex challenge for the cities, and involves many different aspects. An aspect central to the problem is the management of mobility data in the cities. The traditional approach has resulted in data silos implemented and mostly valid only for the city for which they were developed. The OPTICITIES project aims at providing a common framework for multimodal transport management and service provision in the urban environment. A thorough analysis of all the relevant aspects related to the urban data management will be performed in a number of European cities. Working on the idea of local implementations, an overall interoperability framework and local data management profiles of data formats and interfaces are being defined and tested. Working closely with ISO and CEN standardisation groups, it is expected that OPTICITIES will impact directly on reference standard drafts. Additionally, cities usually present also particularities that cannot be addressed exclusively from a technical point of view. The city and region of Madrid, Spain, has done a huge effort in order to integrate operators’ data in a common platform, but needs to consider legacy and new systems, and other factors. The OPTICITIES project aims to integrate all these factors into an implementation guidelines handbook that will allow any city, regardless of the currently used systems and applications, to address the deployment of advanced multimodal data management element

Cartographies for the accreditation of flood risk: SNCZI and PATRICOVA in Comunidad Valenciana (Spain)

En España, las administraciones públicas con competencias en materia de ordenación del territorio y planificación urbanística no disponían hasta fechas recientes de una herramienta jurídica que acreditara el riesgo de inundación en un espacio geográfico. La Ley del Suelo 2/2008 (mod. 2015), resuelve este problema, puesto que obliga a realizar mapas de riesgos naturales como documento acreditativo de riesgo. En la actualidad, existen varias cartografías oficiales sobre inundaciones en el ámbito nacional y autonómico. En el caso que atañe al presente artículo, conviene destacar: el SNCZI (España) y el PATRICOVA (Comunidad Valenciana). Ambas cartografías son válidas a la hora de acreditar el riesgo de inundación; sin embargo, presentan algunas diferencias y similitudes que, en ocasiones, determinan la existencia de un riesgo en un territorio. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que el SNCZI prevalece por encima del PATRICOVA, empero, ambas cartografías son complementarias a la hora de determinar el riesgo de inundación. Por último, se propone una metodología novedosa para generar mapas de peligrosidad en función de la integridad física de una persona.In Spain, the public administrations with powers in the land use and urban planning lacked a legal tool to validate the risk of flooding in a geographical zone. The Land Law 2/2008 (mod. 2015), solves this problem since it forces to develop natural risk maps as a document accrediting risk. Currently, there are several official cartographies on floods at a national and regional level. Nowadays, there are different official cartographies in which both national and autonomous floods appear. In this article, there are two outstanding: SNCZI (Spain) and PATRICOVA (Comunidad Valenciana). Both maps are valid when it comes to proving flood risk. However, they present some differences and similarities that determine the existence of a risk in a territory. The results showed that the SNCZI prevails over the PATRICOVA, however both maps are complementary when it comes to determining flood risk. Finally, a innovative methodology is proposed to generate hazard maps based on the physical integrity of a person.Este artículo se inserta en una Beca predoctoral de Formación de Personal Universitario del Programa Propio del Vicerrectorado de Investigación para el Fomento de la I+D+I en la Universidad de Alicante (UAFPU2019-54) cuya beneficiaria es la coautora Esther Sánchez Almodóvar