Emergency infrastructure management An EU-funded project developed new computer control systems to secure major infrastructure during emergencies. The systems assist with assessment and response, focusing initially on priority scenarios, including fires and power grid failures. Climate Change and Environment © Thinkstock Today, it is both important and difficult to secure major civil infrastructure, especially during emergency situations. Doing so under anticipated future social conditions should be yet more difficult, requiring a new generation of data management and control systems. Aiming to develop such systems was the EU-funded 'Emergency management in large infrastructures' (EMILI) project. The seven-member consortium's goals included developing new data management and control systems for critical infrastructure, plus associated capacity for simulation and training. The three-year project ran throughout all of 2010 to 2012. The work identified aspects of emergency management where users need extra support and where new computer technologies can provide it. The scenarios include fires in airports and metro systems, plus component failures in power grids and the resulting consequences. The research also focused on situational assessment and reaction. Key results included elaboration of semantic technologies during the second year, which enabled processing of considerable quantities of heterogeneous information. The meanings of the reactions were also precisely described. Model semantics were specified, and a modelling and processing environment was implemented. A rudimentary version of the project's event and action language — which analyses data and identifies patterns — was finalised by August 2011. The project's simulation and training environment was designed as reference architecture for each of the three usage scenarios. The simulations can be combined and used to model emergency outcomes. Each scenario was further analysed using the semantic engine and with Dura rules. EMILI resulted in improvements to systems controlling critical infrastructure. The work made such installations more secure and reliable, especially during emergencies. Keywords Emergency infrastructure, infrastructure management, control systems, fires, power grid failures, civil infrastructure, emergency situations, data management, emergency management, large infrastructures, metro systems, semantic technologies
