The impact forecasting concept of ANYWHERE (see Figure 36) is an innovation disruption in the field of Civil Protection and Emergency Management. Thus, Artificial Intelligence is used to integrate the hazard impact forecasting products served by the MH-EWS with high resolution local impact models (such a PROPAGATOR in the case of wildfire propagation, the FF-EWS flash-flood impact indicator or the snow traffic impact on roads for instance) combining them with the regional layers of exposure and vulnerability in the emergency command centres.
All this information, usually available but not interconnected, is now processed in the single platform A4EU, to automatically identify the affected critical points, including their characteristics and location, and other advanced services designed to allow the emergency response specialist to focus on local IMPACTS, without the necessity to look in detail on the meteorological forecasts and triggers, and on a narrow set of vulnerable locations (i.e. Schools, Train Stations, Hospitals, Seveso facilities, etc) instead of vast regions, supporting them to magnify their response capabilities.
The collected experiences have been presented as success stories by the Pilot Site Practitioners in the ANYWHERE Hands-on demonstration and in the Final Workshop held in Brussels (October 2019) showing the huge innovative potential of the ANYWHER real-time implementations.
The most important impact already noted is the new way in which the Pilot Sites are operating, showing the capacity to move forward a “new paradigm”: transforming the emergency response from reactive to proactive (starting before that the emergency occur), based on the ANYWHERE high-resolution impact forecasting integrated in the A4EU platform that allows a better management of the emergency and a significant reduction of damages.
However, the critical element to convert these potentialities into real innovations, and overpass the planned impacts of the project, is the constant interaction and feedback between scientists, IT developers, the emergency managers and first responders.
This crucial work, that of co-creation and co-ownership, plays a central role in ANYWHERE from the very beginning, and it is the foundation on which the full project is built. The keystone to allow that the Users’ needs and expertise guide the entire innovative process, from the design to the implementation and the operation.
This is why the 12 operational authorities that are ANYWHERE partners are the compass of the project, aligning the objectives and the developments to the goal of making a true step forward towards innovation in emergency response during weather-induced emergencies.
This is why ANYWHERE has been really a Users’ driven innovation action.
