A4EU Operational Platform trainings performed successfully in six Pilot Sites

After the initial implementation and deployment of the ANYWHERE’s Operational Platform (A4EU) in six Pilot Sites in Europe to support decision-making during weather induced emergencies on a real environment, the training of the operational staff belonging to the involved Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) organisations was held during May.

The aim of the training sessions was to test the functionalities and the local adaptation of the Platform in a controlled environment with well-known data and information regarding events of the recent past. Also, to make the operational staff competent in the use of the A4EU local versions and to collect their feedback about usability and adequacy of the available functionalities and tools.

All six A4EU implementations are able to integrate the same products and services generated by the ANYWHERE’s Multi-Hazard Early Warning System (MH-EWS) and include the capacity to cross-check with local layers of information (risk and vulnerability maps, local sensors, etc). Therefore, the A4EU Platform is able to automatically provide anticipation and to support more effective response during emergency events independently of the location of the control centre. This capability could be implemented anywhere in Europe.

The selected Pilot Sites, including populated cities as well as rural areas, are Liguria (Italy), Catalonia (Spain), Bern Canton (Swiss Alps), South Savo (Finland), Rogaland (Norway) and Corsica (France). All of them represent different climatic regional scenarios in Europe and therefore distinct extreme weather induced hazards such as flash-floods, storm surges, landslides, forest fires, heatwaves, droughts, snow or wind storms.

The A4EU implementations adaped to local needs are so called A4Lig (Liguria Pilot Site), A4Cat (Catalonia Pilot Site), A4Finn (South Savo Pilot Site), A4Alps (Bern Canton Pilot Site) and A4EU (Rogaland and Corsica Pilot Sites).

The general structure of the training sessions was similar for the six Pilot Sites, based on table-top exercises involving all relevant actors in the emergency management and decision-support process.

From now on, as a next stage of the deployment, the A4EU Platform will be operational on the emergency control centres for a 1-year period to test it deeply on their operational daily basis.