ministero dell ’ interno dipartimento dei vigili del fuoco del soccorso pubblico e della difesa...

MINISTERO DELL’INTERNODIPARTIMENTO DEI VIGILI DEL FUOCO DEL SOCCORSO PUBBLICO E DELLA DIFESA CIVILE

Negombo, 16 June 2014 – CAP Implementation Workshp

CAP & European Emergency Response CapacityControl Centre interoperability

Stefano Marsella & Marcello Marzoli



Overview

• Italian National Fire Corps (CNVVF)

• Interoperability btw CNVVF and emergency stakeholders Control Centers

• side effect: Interoperability within CNVVF branches

• Case 1: cooperative search for missing people in hostile environment

• Case 2: public warning to evacuate WUI for an approaching forest fire

• Case 3: Response to L’Aquila earthquake (April 2009)

• European Emergency Response Capacity



Italian National Fire Corps

18 Regional Directorates

100 Provincial HQ

700 Fire Stations

35.000 Firemen

Italian National Fire Corps

Ministry of Interior



Interoperability btw Control Centers

The 100 CNVVF Control Centers cooperate and exchange info daily with a large number of other first responders’ C&C

selected on the basis of: type of incidentlocation /jurisdiction



Since the first calls, each Control Centre try to collect as much data as possible from the calling citizens to assess type and scale of the event

Notwithstanding the effort, the op. pictures remain confuse, incomplete, contradictory

Common Operational Picture



and build up one only operational picture

To solve the issue, many push for one only Control Room able to coordinate the others

COP & Unified Control Centre



Even though a unified control room can solve the coordination problem btw the rescuers’ directly involved

Local Police RN Squads

Technical Services

Local Volunteer Fire Brigades

Local Volunteer ambulance serv.

CB Squads

Bomb Squads

Emergency Assistance Numbers

It is almost impossible to include all the cooperating organisations (e.g.)

Not only for ‘improper’ mutual competition

But because they often need to have access to a different set of info

and cannot share all of their data with the others

COP and unified control center



Each rescuers’ Control room need a different perspective of the same operational picture

Where a unified control room is implemented, firstly it build up the common picture, then filters are applied to build the customised picture to fulfill each rescuers needs

It is wiser to take a step back:

But filtering is a tricky process, valuable info can be cut off, whereas other info passed on could reveal itself unnecessary then confusing

avoid to centralise all the available info

enhance the exchange of info between the existing control rooms

COP and multilateral data exchange



Data exchange: present situation

Control Centers use sophisticated IT systems,

but different ones



Data exchange: present situationOne C&C collect info from

the citizens

input data into their system

call the other C&C to pass the info

who input again data into his system



Why not to exchange data too?

Using voice as the only “communication device” seems ineffective

Cons: Time and accuracy lost in spelling names, roads, numbers

Plus: Consolidated procedures? Legal basis? Traceability?

Only one real plus: it is the only “channel” fully interoperable

&



The REACT project

• Funded by the EC under FP6

• 2.5 years, 10 partners

• Trials in Italy, Germany, UK

• Scope: improving emergencymanagement through datasharing by defining open dataProtocols and a distributed architecture scalable from local level up to European level



After REACT: residual challenges

Aiming at an actual adoption of the REACT concept in real operations, the main organizational challenges for Emergency Services were:

•To get authorization by all decision makers of the organisations willing to share data; such authorization should take the form of an agreement defining operational procedures, IT security and compliancy levels with in-force regulations and laws

•The agreement on common operational procedures for sharing data and information on events

•The integration of interoperability functionalities with existing legacy systems operating in command and control rooms



Org. challenges: CAP adoption by CNVVF



Org. challenges: Open standards

Non-proprietary standards allow all emergency Services to adopt them without costs for licensing or special tools:

•CAP (Common alerting Protocol) used for structuring information in an XML file•Italian CAP Profile for the further definition of additional information fields•ATOM FEED as distribution mechanism of CAP messages in a many-to-many distributed architecture



CAP ProtocolCAP example



CNVVF CAP Profile



ATOM Feed published by CNVVF



Authorization & common operational procedures : approved agreement



Integration: legacy system SO115 rule settings



• A web application (CAPGenerator) for creating CAP messages.

• An access to a Routing application (CAPRouter) for creating and distributing ATOM FEEDs with CNVVF

• A web application (CAPRetriever) for retrieving ATOM FEED and storing CAP messages on DB

• A web application (CAPReader) visualising CAP messages available on DB in text format (no integrated map available)

All of the above now installed on CNVVF servers

Integration: REACT-VF architecture



Integration: REACT-VF web-interface



Side effect: internal interoperability• Real-time transmission of interventions

for forest fires to a new System for forest fires’ video surveillance and remote sensing

• Real-time transmission of interventions for forest fires from the 100 CNVVF HQ to regional and National Control Centers to calculate number and total area of burnt scar during the fire season 2014



Side effect: internal interoperabilityFor the internal interoperability only the Fire Corps system settings include 377 OIDs exchanging data over 1,455 (unidirectional) channels (through a central repository – without publishing feeds)

As OIDs the CNVVF has provisionally adopted the certified e-mail, as provided by the Directory of Italian Public Administrations (Indice delle Pubbliche Amministrazioni – IPA - http://www.indicepa.gov.it/documentale/english.php), which was set up on purpose to supports the interoperability among public administrations.



Case 1: cooperative search for missing people in hostile environment

• When (daily…) persons are reported missing (e.g. in mountain area) rescuers are many and belong to several areas: – National , regional, municipal

government, public service providers

• Now: agreement on the spot: CNVVF distribute locally terminals to each team to collect their data

• From now on: agreements to exchange data with other rescuers CC (first one signed with the Municipality of Venezia)



E.g. today the Control Center of CNVVF Venezia HQ exchange (by phone) location-wise information with:

• 8 local branch of National and regional organizations and

•86 local organisations

If you multiply per 100…

2 neighbouring Fire Corps provincial HQ,1 National Police (Carabinieri) provincial HQ,

1 National Police (Polizia) provincial HQ,

1 Medical rescue district service,

1 Coast Guard provincial HQ,

1 Civil Protection regional authority,

1 Environmental regional authority,

43 Municipal Police authorities,

43 Civil Protection municipal authorities

…beekeepers...

Case 1: cooperative search for missing people in hostile environment

The internal procedure to regulate such agreements will be issued next October (today one only ‘experimental’ agreement is in force).

But many others will come (all feeds with CAP attached).



Case 2: public warning to evacuate WUI for an approaching forest fire

• By the Law, CNVVF cannot issue a Public Warning• However those who can (e.g. Prefectures), rely on information

from the field and expert advise which easily involve CNVVF- today some CNVVF CCs have the task to trigger some warning systems (sirens) too when ordered by the Prefect –

• CNVVF is going to keep the Prefectures up-to-date with the event evolution through a CAP flow originated by CNVVF Control Centers

• The Prefectures will have then to forward a tailored CAP message to public warning systemsreason why CNVVF is so interested into the Public Warning Design Guidelines for FIA Messaging

Concept to be demonstrated into the EU FP7 R&D integration project



Case 3: Response to L’Aquila earthquake6th April 2009

Within the first day, more than 1.000 responders of the National Fire Corps reached the city and the towns around Aquila, working on 24 hours shifts to save the most of lives.

The emergency life-saving operations have been performed until every missing person has not been found.



Within the third day after the earthquake, the CNVVF has deployed:•nearly 2.300 firemen •1.111 vehicles•3 Satellite Communication Vehicles•5 helicopters•92 Special teams•24 Search teams with dogs•7 Base camps•20 local command units •100 engineers to assess the safety conditions of buildings•8 engineers/architects to assess safety conditions of monuments•1 medical team

Case 3: Response to L’Aquila earthquake




In the first days after the earthquake, the Department has deployed:• 5.434 tents • 44.852 beds• 9.851 cots• 107.289 blankets• 7.663 heaters for tents• 36 assembly tents• 96 electrical plants• 58 power units• 5 mobile refectories• 216 toilets - shower units



This kind of response was possible because in the first phase CNVVF was the only responsible and is organized as a National, hierarchical organization…

L’Aquila Earthquake 6th April 2009

DICOMAC - Direzione Comando e Controllo


What kind of interoperability tool was possible to apply afterwards, when needed?

Solution the Italian Civil Protection had to adopt to allow interoperability between all the actors during the L’Aquila earthquake.



The CAP-enabled system used to manage daily emergencies could easily be extended to the management of large emergencies inside or outside the National borders when hosting or bringing international aid.

Using CAP, the hosting Nation can assign tasks to - and receive reports from - the supporting teams seamlessly and respecting the chain-of-command of each team - cutting down drastically activation times so high to often leave the hosting Nation alone during the most critical phase.


Interoperability of data and procedures in large-scale multinational disaster response actions(EU FP7 R&D integration project – on going)

This concept will be demonstrated in Greece next November in the framework of a multilateral exercise organized by the project



European Emergency Response Capacity

Since 1 January 2014 is in force the new European Decision on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism

Most of the effort will aim at physical interoperability between fire hoses, power plugs, etc…

But CNVVF is going to push to extend the concept to the emergency data exchange between rescuers……based on CAP!

The Decision call for a more efficient European response based on interoperable emergency response capacities committed by Member States.

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