Natural and human caused disasters are occurring more frequently, thereby resulting in loss of lives and damages to infrastructure with long-lasting negative economic and humanitarian effects.

Disasters, Maps & Data: Objects of Interest in Disaster Related Real-Time Situations

WHAT IS C2-SENSE?

1Duro, R.; 1Kutschera, P.; 1Schimak, G.; 1Schabauer J.; 2Arisi, R. 1 AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Digital Safety & Security Department, Seibersdorf, Austria 2 Lutech S.p.A., Marketing & Alliances, Cologno Monzese, Italy

TECHNOLOGIES IN THE FRAMEWORK

Interoperability – Data Management Interoperability – OOIs with Symbology

The work presented is a result of the project that has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no 607729.

References Havlik et al., “Training Support for Crisis Managers with Elements of Serious Gaming”, Environmental Software Systems - Infrastructures, Services and Applications, Springer, 2015 Božić et al., “Requirements Engineering for Semantic Sensor in Crisis and Disaster Management”, Environmental Software Systems - Infrastructures, Services and Applications, Springer, 2015 Schabauer, J., “Sensor Level Plug and Measure: With Non Plug and Play Sensors”, Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2010 Gençtürk et al., “Profiling Approach for the Interoperability of Command & Control Systems with Sensing Systems in Emergency Management”, IFIP Conference on Enterprise Interoperability, 2015 Homeland Security & Central US Earthquake Consortium, “Capstone 2014: Situational Awareness Symbology“, 2014 (Draft)

C2-SENSE is a framework for managing crises and emergency situations. It allows ad-hoc communication with field sensors and sensor networks, data exchange among emergency actors, and provides collaboration environment for joint decision making during emergencies such as floods. C2-SENSE provides interoperability to disparate Command and Control (C2) and sensor systems on an international level, and in (near) real-time. C2-SENSE fosters standardization of data formats, as well as profile-based data sharing and communication.

An Object of Interest (OOI) is every object that needs to be represented on a map and is relevant for proper and accurate decision making (Havlik et al., 2015).

Examples are an ambulance, a person, a sensor or an emergency event. Metadata such as OOI properties and (geotagged) values are attached to OOIs, giving the C2-SENSE framework full flexibility in dealing with emergency situation in a wise and effective way.

The following technologies and ideas are part of the framework (Božić et al., 2015, Gençtürk et al., 2015): Sensors and Networks – all types of sensors that are

needed in a specific emergency situation are connected through Plug and Measure technologies (AnySen; Schabauer, 2010) or IP Gateway technologies

Data Interoperability – incoming data are homogenized, outgoing adjusted to the receiving disparate system

Profiling – based on defined profiles, partners are able to exchange data and messages with C2-SENSE system, and thereby with relevant partners/actors

Semantics – data are enriched with metadata, and connections are automatically made using ontologies

Maps and Features – decision making is highly dependent on the accurate presentation of data on maps, made available through the latest web technologies

When presenting features (data) on a crisis map, the symbols used should be self-explanatory.

There is no widely agreed symbology set in crisis and disaster management field yet, which can cause miscommunication and misunderstandings when presenting the same event, as shown by the four symbols below.

C2-SENSE, however, allows each end user to apply its own mapping tool, or C2-SENSE’s Emergency Maps Tool with a harmonized symbol set such as OCHA’s (Capstone 2014).

www.c2-sense.eu

DISASTERS, MAPS & DATA

Crisis situations become alive on maps and through streams of real-time data, aiding the decision makers. When a crisis is international, interoperability and communication become crucial. Therefore are appropriate maps, correct data and metadata management, and clear and self-explanatory symbols representing those data very relevant in saving lives and properties.

Selected objects of interest (sensors) show variations in water level. Appropriate symbols represent different objects of interest.