Press Release - MEDEA participation at Trial Austria of driver+ with earthquake scenario
The MEDEA network was present at Trial Austria of driver+ (Driving Innovation in Crisis Management for European Resilience) EU funded project, that took place from 12th to 14th of September 2019 in Eisenerz, Austria. Danai Kazantzidou-Firtinidou, Research Associate at KEMEA, coordinator institute of MEDEA network, participated as Observer in the 4th Trial of Driver+, organized by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and the Austrian Red Cross. According to the scenario, the area of Eisenerz was struck by a heavy earthquake with significant impact in terms of buildings and infrastructure damage and casualties. Need for rapid situational and operational awareness for efficient response coordination and decision making was urgent. Main role of the observers was to evaluate the efficiency of five innovative crisis management solutions and give feedback for potential improvements, with the use of the Observer Support Tool, following the Trial Guidance Methodology.
The five solutions tested, with the aid of Red Cross and local citizens volunteers, have been developed with the aim to support engagement of volunteers, exchange of information and real-time situational awareness, essential components of a timely and efficient crisis management. More precisely, all following solution are embedded and interlinked within the Test-bed infrastructure: CROWDTASKER enables crisis managers to activate and guide emergent volunteers; AIRBORNE & TERRESTRIAL SITUATIONAL AWARENESS provides remote sensing of the disaster after precise routing of a remotely piloted vehicle; VIEWTERRA EVOLUTION, builds a 4D representation of the aerial images provided by AIROBORNE solution; ASIGN allows for exchange of geo-spatial photos and videos with low bandwidth requirements, supporting also tracking and creation of geo-zones for alerting. In parallel, the scenario enabled Psychological First Aid training to volunteers with provision of guidelines and experiential training package.
The Trial Austria took place simultaneously and in close coordination with IRONORE 2019, a full-scale exercise funded by European Union Civil Protection, coordinated by the Red Cross Austria in the area of Eisenerz. Players and observers of the Trial had the opportunity to be partially exposed to the activities of the major field exercise and also to exchange experiences with participants to the latter.
MEDEA network wishes to congratulate the organizers of Trial Austria for the excellent execution of the Trial and wishes to thank them for their invitation. Further information on MEDEA is available on the project website. To stay updated on MEDEA’s activities and events, please subscribe to our mailing list here.
