ALPDIRIS

ALPDIRIS (Alpine Disaster Relieve for Italy and Slovenia) is a project funded by DG-ECHO, the European Commission Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations. The project aims at enhancing the cooperation between Italy (Friuli Venezia Giulia region) and Slovenia regarding alpine search and rescue, especially referring to communication and data exchange. The other members of the project are HITEC (coordinator), the Civil Protection of Friuli Venezia Giulia Region and the Slovenian authority for disaster management.

The project will represent a new step forward into interoperability in disaster management.

ALPDIRIS will be based on the developments of a past project called AlpSAR (Alpine Search and Rescue for Slovenia and Italy), a Civil Protection project related to alpine rescue with the participation of FVG Civil Protection and Slovenia.

ALPDIRIS will enhance the tools already possessed by Italian and Slovenian rescue teams (developed by the AlpSAR project). It will add reporting functionalities used by UN OCHA and making them available to all the actors involved in disaster response. Moreover, the project will implement a communication system based on advanced 4G-LTE (Long Term Evolution) and satellite technologies. This system will grant exceptional mobile coverage in border areas, especially montainous ones.

About AlpDIRIS

The objectives

Implement the Protocol signed in 2015 by the Civil Protection of the Regione Friuli Venezia Giulia and the Republic of Slovenia regarding cross-border cooperation
Share different expertise and techniques used in case of emergency
Ensure the exchange of the information between all the involved actors in case of emergencies, even from areas that are not covered by the regular mobile phone or radio signal. The ALPDIRIS system will guarantee information exchange of the position and movement of the operators, pictures and videos, and other techical data
Improve communication capabilities on disaster sites by introducing communication based on satellite and mobile 4G LTE station
Make the situational awareness solution developed by AlpSAR a available to all the actors involved in disaster response

Expected results of ALPDIRIS

The project will allow Italian and Slovenian units involved in alpine rescue ger to significantly enhance the efficiency of their operations. In particular, ALPDIRIS will enhance the cross-border cooperation, the communication and the situational awareness of all the actors.

Italian and Slovenian teams will be equipped with the solutions developed by ALPDIRIS, and will be trained about their use and procedures. Moreover, both Italy and Slovenia will install the servers that will process the information provided by search teams, including units tracking, location and photos. All the procedures will be then tested in a realistic scenario.
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The methodology

ALPDIRIS will not be limited to technological development. Using an holistic approach, the project will take into consideration:

defining the cooperation procedures
developing the ICT solutions that provide data exchange
developing the communication solutions based on satellite and LTE
definig and providing the needed training to the alpine rescue teams
testing on the field the whole solution through a realistic exercise

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Duration

ALPDIRIS will last 24 months, from 1/1/2017 to 31/12/2018.

The consortium

HITEC Luxembourg S.A. (Coordinator) – Luxembourg- HITEC is an engineering company focussed on the development of technological solutions related to areas such as communication, satellite and data processing. HITEC and IES are cooperating in the EPISECC project.
URSZR – Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief – Slovenia – URSZR is the Slovenian national authority responsible of disaster management.
Protezione Civile della Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia (PCRAFVG) – Italy – The Italian Civil Protection organisation competent of FVG region.
Intelligence for Environment and Security – IES Solutions srl – Italy