Trialing Innovative Technologies in Crisis Management - “Airborne and Terrestrial Situational Awareness” as Support Tool in Flood Response

Flooding represents the most-occurring and deadliest threats worldwide among natural disasters. Consequently, new technologies are constantly developed to improve response capacities in crisis management. The remaining challenge for practitioner organizations is not only to identify the best solution to their individual demands, but also to test and evaluate its benefit in a realistic environment before the disaster strikes. To bridge the gap between theoretic potential and actual integration into practice, the EU-funded project DRIVER+ has designed a methodical and technical environment to assess innovation in a realistic but non-operational setup through trials. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) interdisciplinary merged mature technical developments into the “Airborne and terrestrial situational awareness” system and applied it in a DRIVER+ Trial to promote a sustainable and demand-oriented R&D. Experienced practitioners assessed the added value of its modules “KeepOperational” and “ZKI” in the context of large-scale flooding in urban areas. The solution aimed at providing contextual route planning in police operations and extending situational awareness based on information derived through aerial image processing. The user feedback and systematically collected data through the DRIVER + Test-bed approved that DLR’s system could improve transport planning and situational awareness across organizations. However, the results show a special need to consider, for example, cross-domain data-fusion techniques to provide essential 3D geo-information to effectively support specific response tasks during flooding

Ad-hoc situational awareness during floods using remote sensing data and machine learning methods

Recent advances in machine learning and the rise of new large-scale remote sensing datasets have opened new possibilities for automation of remote sensing data analysis that make it possible to cope with the growing data volume and complexity and the inherent spatio-temporal dynamics of disaster situations. In this work, we provide insights into machine learning methods developed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) for rapid mapping activities and used to support disaster response efforts during the 2021 flood in Western Germany. These include specifically methods related to systematic flood monitoring from Sentinel-1 as well as road-network extraction, object detection and damage assessment from very high-resolution optical satellite and aerial images. We discuss aspects of data acquisition and present results that were used by first responders during the flood disaster

Katastrophenschutzübung in Salzburg: Neue Methoden und Technologien für Einsatzkräfte

Im Rahmen des AIFER Forschungsprojektes fand am Samstag, den 29.04.2023, unter gemeinsamer Leitung des Österreichischen und des Bayerischen Roten Kreuz sowie der Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg und dem Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt eine Katastrophenschutzübung (FEx Field Exercise) statt . Dabei wurde der Einsatz innovativer Entwicklungen und Technologien in einem nach der Dienstvorschrift 100 (DV 100) stabsdienstlich organisierten Lagezentrum anhand eines Hochwasserszenarios getestet und von Experten verschiedener Einsatzorganisationen und Behörden bewertet

Next Generation Emergency Mapping

In recent years, geo- and earth observation technologies have developed into essential tools to support civil protection and disaster management by providing added value to crisis information. Several mechanisms for emergency mapping have been established at different (inter)national levels, at European level the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS). These services should be subject to constant development through constant progress in technology and method development. Novel data sources such as various Earth Observation sensors, but also web-based data sources and their fusion can be used to provide more dynamic crisis information at different stages of the crisis cycle. The handling of large amounts of data or innovative forms of visualisation can be profitably incorporated into crisis mapping. In order to connect the two communities: research and development (R&D) with the operational crisis management (CM) and to ensure a mutual exchange, EU projects, especially in for service development, and new frameworks as shown in DRIVER+ are essential. In this way, research results can be selected, further developed, tested and prepared for operationalisation

Earth Observation based Crisis Information, Emergency mapping services and recent operational developments

Over the last years, geospatial and Earth Observation technologies have become essential tools to support the Civil Protection and Disaster Management community by providing value-added crisis information. Several emergency mapping mechanisms have been established at different (inter)national levels. The Center for Satellite Based Crisis Information (ZKI) at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) is involved in several services and research projects focusing on the development of the operational services, methods, and products to ensure a continuous improvement. In this paper, an overview of emergency mapping, its services, and recent ZKI developments for Earth Observation based crisis information e.g. 3D mapping and real-time provision of aerial images - tested in an exercise on flood mapping and used for situational awareness during a major event are presented

From crisis management to humanitarian technology - a European perspective. Proceedings IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology

The European Union (EU) Member States and the European Commission (EC) are investing substantial funds in research and development (R&D) on technologies and innovative solutions for European and international disaster management, risk reduction as well as general crisis preparedness and response. The German Aerospace Center (DLR) has intensively been working in these R&D programs for many years and has developed its own research agenda in support of crisis and disaster management. In recent years, R&D activities within DLR are beginning to increasingly address also technological and operational needs of humanitarian relief actors who are providing assistance to people most in need. In this paper we report how major EC funded R&D programs and projects, including the current DRIVER project, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) as well as DLR cooperation activities with the World Food Program (WFP), SOS Children’s Villages International, the German Agency for Technical Relief (THW), the Red Cross and others are increasingly leading to a humanitarian technology support. With these activities DLR is aiming to help bridging the operational gap between laboratory scale and humanitarian field operations