iSAR+
The iSAR+ Project aims to research and develop guidelines and an associated platform that, major emergencies or crises, enables citizens using new mobile and online technologies to actively participate in the response effort, through the bi-directional provision, dissemination, sharing and retrieval of information essential for critical Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) intervention.
Empowered by the new communication media, such as mobile phones with cameras, text messagng and internet-based applications connecting to social media platforms, citizens are the in situ first sensors, but their added-value involvement in crisis response efforts is often disregarded by PPDRs, as they struggle to develop a timely and adequate situational awareness.
iSAR+ focuses on the dynamics between citizens and PPDRs in crises, allowing (i) the leverage of PPDRs’ levels of shared awareness and performance, benefiting from citizens’ published information, (ii) the exploitation of mobile platforms’ ubiquity to search, locate and effectively communicate with citizens and (iii) the redirection of citizens’ large energy and information flow into PPDRs platforms. TCD’s role in iSAR+ is to work with members of the emergency services and establish a human-centred concept of operations (CONOPS) framework to help facilitate the optimal management of information and resources incorporating new media.
PI
Michael Cooke
Timescale
2012 - 2015
Funding provider
EU-FP7