A4EU platform begins the 1-year operational demonstration in six Pilot Sites

October 2018 marks the start of a new stage in the implementation of the platform for Decision Support in Emergency Management Operation Services (A4EU) and its deployment on the control centres of the Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) organisations involved in the ANYWHERE project. After the completion of the training activities to qualify the operational staff in the use of the tool, now the platform will become operational during a 1-year demonstration test period in six Pilot Sites around Europe.

In this stage, the staff belonging to the PPDR organisations of the Pilot Sites of Liguria (Italy), Catalonia (Spain), Bern Canton (Swiss Alps), South Savo (Finland), Rogaland (Norway) and Corsica (France) will deeply test operationally their local versions of the A4EU tool on their daily basis. On the other hand, all along this period it is expected to gather valuable feedback from end-users that will help developers improve the system and ensure the needs of operational staff are met.

In the first place, operational staff will test the weather-induced hazard forecasting products and algorithms included the ANYWHERE’s Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MH-EWS) and check their usefulness in covering their operational needs as well as in providing the impact estimation. It will also be analysed the convenience of the data representation in the platform for a suitable support in the decision-making process, including the correct integration of the different data sources available. Furthermore, it is foreseen that the performance of the impact forecasting products and its accuracy will be evaluated through the comparison of the forecasts made by the models with the occurrence and/or with respect to the emergency actions triggered.

All the impressions gathered and provided by practitioners about the usability and adequacy of the current available functionalities and tools will also allow point out the benefits of the A4EU in terms of reliability/usability compared to other legacy tools already available in each Pilot Site.

The feedback collected together with interaction to be held between all the involved parties (emergency managers and first responders, scientists, technical experts, IT developers, etc.) during the 1-year demonstration period will contribute to a powerful pre-commercial support tool in the decision-making process during weather induced emergencies.