Geo-information services for risk management on a European level

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Presentation

 

PREVIEW is an EC- co funded research project looking for new techniques to better protect European citizens against environmental risks and to reduce their consequences.
The project is coordinated by INFOTERRA France

PREVIEW will provide new or enhanced information services for risk management in three thematic domains:

Atmospheric, Geophysics, Man-made.

Supporting European Civil Protection units – local, regional, national and European authorities – PREVIEW draws on the most advanced research and technological developments using satellite observation in combination with other data and scientific models, that will help better prevent, anticipate and/or manage different types of disasters. Examples include:

  • New early warning systems to better anticipate short-term risk - for instance, floods and landslides;
  • Crisis support services to allow more effective rescue operations, e.g. fire monitoring and rapid mapping;
  • Building ‘risk maps’ for different types of hazards, in order to improve prevention and preparedness measures.

PREVIEW is jointly developed by a consortium of 58 partners from 15 nations, gathering a wide range of technical skills and key representatives in risk management:

  • Research centres,
  • Universities,
  • Meteorological institutes,
  • Industrial companies,
  • Civil Protection units.  
 

Setting up environmental services
for Europe and the world

PREVIEW services, once fully qualified and integrated within operational procedures of existing civil protection services, will result in significantly increased safety for European citizens. These same solutions will then be made available to extra-European countries, responding to strong and growing demand for security and safety systems worldwide.

The PREVIEW project is expected to last for 45 months in total. At the mid-project point, a first version of the solutions developed will have been set up and tested by civil protection users in real-world ‘regional platforms’. These will be set up at different test sites spread across Europe. The results of these experiments will guide the work for the second half of the project.

Preview project presentation 2007/02/01 -1.37 Mo

 

Service applications

Preview develops thematic services to face the following hazards:

  • Floods,
  • Forest fires,
  • Windstorms,
  • Earthquakes and volcanoes,
  • Landslides,
  • Man-made risks: dispersion of airbone hazardous substances.



Additional transverse services are developed for:

  • Asset mapping,
  • Rapid mapping,

Damage intensity assessment.

Service development

The services benefit of the most recent research methodologies and scientific models. They are developed through extensive integration of:

  • Space data,
  • Meteorological data,
  • In-situ measurements,
  • Exogenous data.


All phases of risk are covered


The provided services cover the risk management cycle in a consistent and harmonised approach, facilitating the exchange of information between all parties involved in the following phases:

  • Prevention,
  • Early warning,
  • Crisis management,

Post-crisis and recovery. 

 

European level

The aim of PREVIEW is to provide services on a European scale, while identifying and taking into account the needs, practices and regulations at local, regional and national levels. This federative approach proposes

  • Better harmonisation of services allowing an enlarged European applicability
  • European deployment to enhance a cross-border interoperability

    User driven project

    Users are fully involved in the development process.

    PREVIEW services, are developed an a iterative process with end users, from user needs requirements to qualification. The services will be qualified and integrated within pre-operational procedures of existing civil protection services.. These same solutions will then be made available to extra-European countries.

    The major end users are the European Civil Protection Authorities, who are the key actors in the following processes:

    • Definition and performance of the services,
    • Test campaigns and assessments of the services,
    • European scalability,
    • Promotion and dissemination.

    Furthermore, PREVIEW follows an iterative process to continuously refine and improve its services, based on user feedback each on-site test campaigns.

    The aim is to enlarge the community of users to other risk management actors and to a wider geographical extent.

    Further operational deployment

    Preview will elaborate representative concepts of operation and will propose organisation schemes to prepare the deployment and future operation of the services. This includes:

    • Operation scenarios,
    • Service organisation, including the necessary recommendations of procedures and regulations,
    • Service partnership agreements, including an organisation scheme for service operation and maintenance,
    • Recommendations and implementation plan for full operations of the services from 2008.
     

     

    There is no European region that can be considered as perfectly secured from natural or man-made risks, either originating at national or trans-national level.

    The risks may result from the direct impact of atmospheric events (windstorms, heavy precipitations, snowfalls, thunderstorms…), from their hydrological consequences (plain floods, flash floods) or from geophysical events (earthquakes, subsidence, landslides…) and in some cases be worsened or directly caused by industrial activities from floods, forest fires, windstorms, earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides to dispersion of hazardous substances.

    Every year, natural and man-made disasters are the cause of major human, economic and environmental consequences. The economic impact in Europe alone is on the order of billions of Euros, and this is in addition to the human toll, in terms of casualties and more generally impact on human lives.

    Wherever they live, the citizens rightfully expect to get the best available information on the risks that can endanger their life and property, be warned in due time when facing a forthcoming event and be assisted with proper effectiveness during and after the unavoidable crisis.

    The PREVIEW project is developing new information services based on satellite monitoring and other observing techniques to protect European citizens against all manner of environmental hazards, from floods and forest fires, to earthquakes and chemical spills.

    The major objectives of Preview are:

    • To enhance risk mitigation through better prevention and preparedness, better anticipation and more accurate assessment at various time and spatial scales of situations at risk.
    • To improve timely dissemination of meaningful and adapted early warning information, perfectly fitted to the societal needs and to the concepts of operations of rescue forces.

    Two main axes of progress lead to enhanced capabilities for key actors (Civil Protections and Rescue bodies, Environmental Agencies, Planning offices, anticipation services operators, EU institutions…):

    • Improvement of services content:
      • increasing quality and harmonisation of the information supporting decision-making at operational level,
      • improving information collection, aggregation in order to set up products added value
      • developing synergies, cooperative work and inter-operability capacities among operators to widespread best solutions at national, regional, and European levels.
    • Improvement of connectivity between services and users:
      • improvement and standardisation of the information processing for better, faster, safer, field operations,
      • homegeneize and simplify the access to the information via a portal of services
      • provide the right information at the right time at the right place.

    PREVIEW is part of the European GMES initiative which offers a significant opportunity to progress in responding to these expectations, making in particular the best possible use of the Space techniques and solutions.