EC Develops Disaster Zone Collaboration Tech

The European Union is developing an application which allows relief agencies to collaborate using peer-to-peer technology when responding to natural disasters.

Announced late last week, the software application has been developed by EU-funded IT research project Workpad. The application is described as being a “central dispatch point” which uses peer-to-peer technology to integrate the databases of aid organisations and government departments to share information as quickly as possible.

“When an earthquake, forest fire or flood hits, we need to deploy all our available resources to save as many lives as possible and to provide urgent rescue services,” said Commission vice-president for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes.  “EU research funds have helped to develop a great ICT tool that makes emergency response even better and faster. This is how research and innovation can help to build the Digital Agenda for Europe.”

Front-line Workers

According to the EU, the software has already been succesfully trialled in Southern Italy. Once the disparate back-office systems of the organisations are connected, the information from all of them can be shared with front-line workers on the ground using handheld devices.

The data can include information on the names of people living in an apartment building which may have collapsed. The system also includes the ability to help with task-management in the field and assign roles and provide instructions to rescue workers, the EU states. “If a more urgent need arises, workers can be called to a new task,” the statement reads.

Around half of the cost of the €3.16 million (£2.63m) project was funded from the Commission’s research funding programme, the EU stated.

Telecom Sans Frontieres

Technology has played a key role in dealing with the aftermath of recent disasters. Emergency telecoms group Telecoms Sans Frontieres (TSF) deployed to Haiti in January to respond the impact of the earthquake in the country. The charity specialises in setting up communications infrastructure to allow aid-agencies to communicate on the ground more effectively.

In June, Satellite provider Inmarsat was awarded the UK’s most prestigious prize for engineering innovation, thanks in part to its role in providing communications to disaster zones around the world.