Project description
Improving Risk management
Seamless response to cross-border emergency situations
If a major natural disaster were to strike several European countries simultaneously, coordinating emergency relief efforts across borders could be a nightmare.
But, in the not too distant future, local, regional and Europe-wide cooperation between civil protection organisations and emergency services should be well organised and relatively seamless, thanks to an ongoing EU research project.
At the moment, language and widely differing technologies are barriers to a harmonised approach. This is not just a cross-border problem, but also a regional and inter-service one within countries.
Language and technology barriers
Project OASIS, which runs until December 2008, was set up to make it a lot easier for the different units involved in an emergency call-out to communicate clearly with each other, despite any language barriers and different methods of operation.
That such coordination could be done on a pan-European basis had already been proved by the co-operation that exists between NATO countries on military matters. Military units from different countries are currently able to communicate and work together at short notice.
The OASIS project involves 14 partners from ten countries, ensuring the latest know-how on emergency management from industrial, civil, user and academia perspectives.
Easy exchange of information
From the outset, OASIS has been working to develop an IT framework that allows the different respondents to an emergency, from wherever and whoever they are, to exchange information.
First, the partners had to identify – and in some instances develop from scratch – the key components to form the basis of a European disaster and emergency management system, and then to test the components and the system.
At the core of the project is what the partners call a ‘standard instrument’. This is a detailed specification for a structured set of data named the Tactical Situation Object (TSO). The TSO describes the emergency, the resources engaged in responding to one, and the tasks in progress in a precise and unambiguous way.
Clarity and accuracy
All the parties responding to the emergency need to be able to feed information into the TSO in real time and to access the latest information as they require it. This ability provides the responders with the clarity and accuracy they need to deal with the situation.
For responders to be able to link into other systems and use the information provided by such systems, researchers had to create an OASIS IT framework. They had to develop common standards and a set of software tools that were independent of language and technology. The design allows others with different languages and technology to use the tools.
The researchers tested the first version of the prototype system in September 2006 by simulating large-scale chemical leaks in the UK and France.
In April 2008, a functional set-up of the OASIS system was demonstrated by civil protection users – police, firefighters, ambulance, and the highway agency – at Cranfield University in the UK.
The project team also scheduled a trial of the system in July 2008, linking OASIS into the Czech Republic’s crisis- management information system. A field trial of a mobile command post was conducted in May 2008 in a remote area of Romania.
On completion, the project researchers will have laid the foundations for a linked-up European emergency response system.
OASIS is an Integrated Project (IP) focused on Emergency and Disaster Management.
Conducted over 48 months, OASIS aims to define a generic crisis management system to support the response and rescue operations in the case of large scale as well as local emergencies subsequent to any kind of disaster and to facilitate the cooperation between the information systems used by the civil protection organisations.
Taking full advantage of, and leveraging work from, the previous projects (FP5, ESA and National initiatives) in the relevant domains, from the dual-use technologies, and in continuity of the successful developments in the EGERIS project, OASIS will:
1) analyse the users requirements to extract European generic system requirements,
2) specify and design a true generic, interoperable and open system architecture which will allow easy deployment at every level of the action chain (local, regional, national and European). This generic architecture will rely on the integration of mature state-of-the-art technologies.
The project will provide the definition of:
- the system backbone (data bases, common operating environment and fully interoperable message handling system), supported by a reliable and secure communication network,
- the deployable broad-band wireless communication network,
- the command and control functions,
- the decision support software modules.
3) implement these architectural concepts through the development of 2 versions of a pre-operational system (POS1 and POS2), representative of the future European and national target system(s),
4) validate and evaluate POS1 and POS2 with users from different EU countries. The evaluation sessions will be performed in the frame of operational scenarios.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences computer and information sciences software
- social sciences sociology governance crisis management
- engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering information engineering telecommunications radio technology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
FP6-2003-IST-2
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Coordinator
78990 ELANCOURT
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.