Approach and Work Plan

General

The work performed on the AlpDIRIS project is partly based on the former Civil Protection Preparedness project ALPSAR (Alpine Search and Rescue for Italy and Slovenia), that already provided in 2012 a solution for the collaboration between the Slovenian and Italian Mountain Rescue services. ALPDIRIS aims at opening this solution for all disaster response activities, allowing the information exchange with additional external users. For this to be possible, open interfaces for interoperability between different systems will be developed that, among the other, will be built on the concepts and the standard-based approach of the so called “Pan-European Common Information Space (CIS)”, designed in another FP7 project, EPISECC. To demonstrate the possibility to interface (==interoperate) with other entities via open, standard interfaces and protocols the Fire Brigades of the region Friuli Venezia Giulia are supporting the project as well and will be integrated into the collaboration. The ALPSAR solution developed by HITEC Luxembourg, the coordinator of the ALPDIRIS project, will be updated in order to allow interoperability between different entities, being compatible with the Common Information Space concepts. Today, the Fire brigades of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region use tools provided by IES Solutions for information exchange. These tools, based on the suite of software services for emergency information management and exchange called JIXEL, will be updated to be integrated in the AlpDIRIS solution. In order to provide the necessary ICT communication interfaces and facilities for the disaster response team members, special on-site communication equipment will be introduced like a mobile LTE 4G base station, connected via a satellite communication system to the main network. This combination allows the use of standard LTE tables and phone as user device for the disaster response team members on a remote disaster site in the mountain region.

For a successful implementation of the ALPDIRIS solution following topics are taken into account:

  • Collaboration procedure definition
  • The Software and ICT solution providing information exchange
  • On-site communication solution based on satellite and LTE
  • Training and Exercises

The collaboration procedures and requirements for an ICT solution are defined by the users URSZR, PCRAFVG and the Italian Fire Brigades. Based on the requirements definition and solution specification, the technical partners HITEC and IES implement the necessary software components to fulfil the requirements. An important part of the project are the collaborative exercises and trainings. The solution will first be tested by mountain rescuers in Slovenia and Italy in field trials and then in 2 collaborative exercises simulating real disasters e.g. an earthquake and a plane crash in the Alps. During the mentioned exercises, the brand new ICT development of the current collaboration protocol between Italy and Slovenia Civil Protection, will be tested and validated as well.

Structure of the Work

The Work Plan is split in the following Tasks:

  • Task A – Common Cooperative Procedure Definition (URSZR / PCRAFVG): This Task aims to define the common cooperative procedure and the requirements for the disaster relief solution
  • Task B – Adaptation and Integration of the solution (HITEC) This Task realizes the implementation of the Common Information Space Adaptors for the integration of URSZR, PCRAFVG and FVG Fire Brigades in the solution. The Task will be also focussed on the Installation of the solution for the field trials
  • Task C – Field Trial (PCRAFVG / URSZR) Main purpose of Task C is the organisation and execution of Field Trials in Slovenia and Italy, as well as a final exercise. It also aims at collecting feedback from the trials, that will be used to update the procedures and the toolset
  • Task D – Start Productive use (IES) Within Task D, the training for both Slovene and PCRAFVG response teams will be executed. After the training, the actual productive use of the solution in Italy and Slovenia will start
  • Task E – Publicity (IES) This Task serves the realization and coordination of all dissemination activities including, among the others, the creation of the AlpDIRIS Web Site, the presentation of the results to PSCE conferences, and the creation of a concept Video
  • Task F – Management and Reporting to the Commission (HITEC) Task F takes care of all project management activities