Security Management Platform for enhanced situation awareness and real-time adaptive evacuation strategies for large venues for sports and entertainment

Project Information

evaGuide

Grant agreement ID: 831154

DOI

10.3030/831154

Project closed

EC signature date 27 November 2018

Start date 1 December 2018

End date 31 May 2021

Funded under

• Horizon 2020 Framework Programme

Total cost

€ 2 392 125,00

EU contribution

€ 1 674 487,50

Coordinated by

TELESTO TECHNOLOGIES PLIROFORIKIS KAI EPIKOINONION EPE
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - evaGuide (Security Management Platform for enhanced situation awareness and real-time adaptive evacuation strategies for large venues for sports and entertainment)

Reporting period: 2019-12-01 to 2021-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The safe evacuation of large crowds from complex facilities is a common challenge for facility operators / safety managers across EU and globally. Crowds gathered in large venues may be overwhelmed in case of an emergency or during a critical event (e.g. human-induced intentional/ unintentional, technological failures, natural disasters etc).

The need to tackle this challenge becomes even more urgent in case of sports stadia that routinely host events that gather tens of thousands of spectators and have recently become targets of extremism and terrorism.

Addressing this pressing need requires coordinated action and advanced situational awareness techniques to effectively coordinate the evacuation procedures. Evacuating a large and complex facility is a safety-critical and strictly time-bound task. The current evacuation plans are static, failing to effectively manage evacuation situations that evolve and change over time. Real-time and dynamic management of an evacuation process is of paramount importance and paper-based evacuation plans are of low value in actual conditions.
EVAGUIDE is a Security Management Platform that aims to address the needs of the safety of large facility visitors during complex evacuation processes. It provides accurate representation of the situation, and maintains location-specific, dynamic evacuation routes, regardless of the circumstances. EVAGUIDE can identify new threats and provide enhanced situation awareness and real-time adaptive evacuation strategies. It can support the complete lifecycle of evacuation planning, simulating complex scenarios, training of safety personnel and assessment of the performed actions.

The EVAGUIDE focuses on the development of a ready-for-market (TRL8), easily deployable system that guides visitors to safety and improves all corresponding response evacuation times under any circumstances. During the COVID crisis EVAGUIDE consortium explored the possibility of extending and adapting platform’s functionalities, to cover the new social distancing requirements.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The following results have been achieved:

Project Management
• EC Communication & reporting
• Deliverables submitted & milestones achieved
• Monitor project’s activities, timetable deviations, milestones, risk & quality management & correction initiatives
• Maintain collaboration infrastructure (Google Drive)
• Organization several partner’s meetings
• External Experts Advisory Board establishment to provide advice/ guidance
• Selection of PAOK’s stadium in Thessaloniki, as a testbed venue
• Selection of “Peach and Friendship stadium” in Athens, 2nd testbed stadium
• 3 demos organization (PAOK, “Holargos Center” & “Peace and Friendship”)
• Amendment elaboration
• Open access management (Zenodo platform)

Ethics requirements & data management
• Selection of the project’s DPO
• Preparation of informed consent forms for volunteers
• Description of the technical, organizational and security measures that will be implemented to safeguard the rights/ freedoms of the data subjects and to prevent unauthorized access to their personal data collected
• Report on societal, ethical and legal frameworks under which EVAGUIDE operates
• Preparation of the Data Management Plan

Technical progress
• User & system requirements have been identified
• Preparation of a questionnaire for the end-users to learn more about the current safety status in EU stadia
• Definition of stadia selection criteria
• Define the set of services that will be offered during the project’s lifecycle, based on requirements
• Platform’s design/architecture definition
• Communication middleware (Apache Kafka)
• Development of the Mobile Platform for spectators & safety personnel
• Development of the Core System to handle the interconnection with sensing elements, the alarm raising mechanisms & active exit signs
• Integration with COP that supports decision making
• Single installation with all system components
• Interoperability with legacy systems

Test Demonstrations

On-site technical testing performed at PAOK’s stadium, with the help of 34 volunteers and team members participating in the evacuation scenarios. The first results of the use of EVAGUIDE in real conditions, showed a decrease of approx. 25% in the evacuation time.
Due to COVID-19 travel and social distancing restrictions, the final system demo was not performed at PAOK’s stadium as it was initially planned, but at the “Holargos Center”, a Mall where Telesto’s premises are situated. A few number of volunteers participated, all team members. Partners had the opportunity to install all system components on-site and test the functionalities. Several evacuation scenarios were performed and showed a decrease of approximately 37% in the evacuation time.
Test of the “Social distancing” version an modules of EVAGUIDE at the “Peace and Friendship stadium”.

Marketing & dissemination activities
• Development of the brand
• Creation of printed & digital material
• Website development & social media presence
• Marketing report
• Webinar organization
• Account at zenodo
• Participation at CEN/TC391 “Societal and Citizen Security”
• Competition analysis
• IPR management between partners
• Video creation for the project presentation and video demo at “Holargos center”
• Consortium activities towards Investment & Financial Sustainability
• Event participation relevant to safety/ security

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Technology-wise, major stadia nowadays house equipment required for visually monitoring the status of the facility (CCTV), controlling access to it (turnstiles at gates) and its current status (fire alarms); stewards communicate over regular UHF handhelds (two-way radio) with the safety hierarchy to report potential threats to safety. In case of an emergency the stewards are asked to move to predefined positions for controlling the crowd. The spectators have no knowledge of the current safety conditions and only in case that an evacuation is declared, are guided by pre-recorded messages played back by the Public Address system. Evacuation planning is performed in the form of static, textual information that present a primary evacuation route accompanied with an alternative option, produced using simplified crowd movement models or specified software at the best case.
There is no solution in the market that offers a complete, case independent, evacuation preparedness and real-time support system. EVAGUIDE will represent unique advances over the current-state-of-the-art.

Socio-economic impact
Sport and entertainment venues are highly susceptible to the volatility introduced by the human factor, the natural phenomena and in some cases from technical faults. New threats are also emerging relating to extremist/ terrorist plans aiming to harm people attending events in large venues. Current intelligence and analysis depicts that attacks to large crowd gatherings – especially within confined spaces – will increase in the years to come.
Societies cannot afford to ignore the possibilities of disasters, and must do their utmost to limit their socio-economic impact. EVAGUIDE will do much to reduce the high costs of disasters and help to limit the consequences of crises, increase of perception of security among citizens and ultimately save human lives.

Additionally, EVAGUIDE’s “social distancing” version may support the requirements of the “new normal” regarding crowd management in the COVID-19 era.

EVAGUIDE LOGO

EVAGUIDE BROCHURE #1

EVAGUIDE - HOW IT WORKS?