DRIVER+ underwent its first Trial in Warsaw, the first of four Trials in this ambitious
project towards innovation in resilience and Crisis Management.

From 21 to 25 May, Trial 1 demonstrated the potential value of a more integrated
high-level Crisis Management system in the European Union in a cross-border
context in terms of improved situation assessment, coordination and resource
pooling & sharing. Trial 1 brought together over sixty participants from all over
Europe, including practitioners from the civil protection and crisis management
sectors, solution providers, experts and observers. The activities were held at the
Warsaw headquarters of Poland’s Main School of Fire Service (SGSP).
 

After an open selection process, three solutions were trialled in the context of a
chemical accident. For the trialling of the solutions, a spill over was simulated
which released 2,500,000 cubic metres of toxic fluid affecting the nearby
population and with the real risk of spilling over into more populated areas and
neighbouring countries. Practitioners were able to trial how applicable and
effective the solutions were when responding to a disaster where coordination
across different countries is imperative. They could also simulate how to adapt
their response to an emergency based on the changing dynamics of a flood. This
involved assessing how the solutions allowed the practitioners to better respond to
the accident, compared to their response without applying those solutions.

 A tabletop exercise was held during which the three solutions were trialled in a
virtual environment enabling the benefits of the solutions to be demonstrated.
Socrates OC (developed by GMV) sets up a Common Operational Picture at a
European level for emergency services. 3Di (developed by Nelen & Schuurmans)
allows practitioners to simulate the dynamics of a flood in relation to the
geography of the affected area. Drone Rapid Mapping (developed by Hexagon
Safety & Infrastructure) enables the mapping of an affected area using cloud
computing following a drone flight.  

This was followed by a field-based Trial organised at SGSP’s Field Training and
Rescue Innovation Base in the nearby location of Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki. The
participants being first responders in the field, were in constant contact via On Site
Commanding Centres with their colleagues at the SGSP Warsaw headquarters
working for regional Crisis Management Centres (CMC). This field component of
the Trial demonstrated the applicability and effectiveness of the Socrates OC
solution, as well as of Drone Rapid Mapping, which creates orthophotos and 3D
maps of an affected area from a drone flight, thus allowing practitioners to have a
geometrically correct view of the area.

Practitioners’ views during the Trial indicated that the solutions can certainly add
value to their operations. Tarmo Kull, a fire officer and a lecturer at the Estonian
Academy of Security Sciences considered that “Socrates OC allows us to get an
overview of the neighbour’s resources. It’s also a good sign that the private sector
is supporting the public sector, which is an added value of the DRIVER+ project.” A
video illustrating Trial 1 can be found here.

Trial 1, like the upcoming three Trials and final demonstration, will lead to the
further development of a pan-European Test-bed developed by the project, which
will be a unique opportunity for a transformative change in terms of assessing the
value of innovative solutions in resilience and crisis management. The Test-bed, a
pan-European arena of virtually connected facilities and crisis labs, will provide
guidance and infrastructure to support practitioners in their capability
development.

The second DRIVER+ Trial will be held in October 2018 in Valabre (France). The
main event will be a significant forest fire, threatening wildland urban interfaces in
a Mediterranean environment. Crisis Management gaps, which will be addressed
include interoperability (which comprises shortcomings in the exchange of information among agencies), common understanding (which refers to limits in the understanding by crisis managers of the information exchanged) and coordination in response operations, including a lack of common procedures to support
international cooperation in aerial firefighting.


If you are a Crisis Management professional interested in assessing innovative
solutions, or a solution provider developing and deploying socio-technical
solutions for first responders, DRIVER+ would like you to become involved in the
project. Further details are available at www.driver-project.eu/collaborate-with
us/external-cooperation-platforms/.

The Call for Applications for the Trial in the Netherlands is still open and you can
have the opportunity to spread out your solution to the European Crisis
Management Community. Visit http://www.driver-project.eu/collaborate-with
us/call-for-applications-2/call-for-application-trial-the-netherlands/ and submit your application until July 2nd.

Further details of the DRIVER+ project are available from the dedicated website
http://www.driver-project.eu