Eva Trasforini

Resource Allocation in Integrated Preoperational and Operational Management of Natural Hazards

The management of natural hazards occurring over a territory entails two main phases: a preoperational-or pre-event-phase, whose objective is to relocate resources closer to sites characterized by the highest hazard, and an operational-during the event-phase, whose objective is to manage in real time the available resources by allocating them to sites where their intervention is needed. Obviously, the two phases are closely related, and demand a unified and integrated treatment. This work presents a unifying framework that integrates various decisional problems arising in the management of different kinds of natural hazards. The proposed approach, which is based on a mathematical programming formulation, can support the decisionmakers in the optimal resource allocation before (preoperational phase) and during (operational phase) an emergency due to natural hazard events. Different alternatives of modeling the resources and the territory are proposed and discussed according to their appropriateness in the preoperational and operational phases. The proposed approach can be applied to the management of any natural hazard and, from an integration perspective, may be particularly useful for risk management in civil protection operations. An application related to the management of wildfire hazard is presented.

A decision support system for resource intervention in real-time emergency management

In the emergency management related to either natural or anthropogenic disasters, transport and communication infrastructures play a key role for a good realisation of the emergency plans. Communication in this phase is essential both from a bottom-up (information related to the actual state of a catastrophic event), and from a top-down point of view (information related to the policy of the decision makers relevant to resources management). On the other hand, the importance of transport infrastructures is fundamental, as it is an essential instrument for emergency resource intervention, as well as for population evacuation. Thus, an effort should be made in order to define instruments capable of aiding decision makers in using infrastructures during emergency management. In this paper, a Decision Support System (DSS) for resource intervention in real-time emergency management is proposed. The general methodological framework and the mathematical formulation of one of the problems solved by the DSS are described.

Modeling the vulnerability of complex territorial systems: An application to hydrological risk

Abstract One of the goals of urban planners is to define and to evaluate strategies to mitigate the effects of natural hazards. Adequate methodologies and models should be studied to support their decisions. In this work, an approach to evaluate the overall “systemic” vulnerability of a territory to extreme natural phenomena is presented. This approach is able to support decision makers in evaluating the key preventive planning actions to be exploited on a territory, taking into account both the specific possible damage that is likely to impact the different single relevant elements and the reduction in functionality of the overall territorial system caused by damage to a specific element. To achieve this goal, a graph-based approach is introduced to model the influences that each element may have on the functionality of the overall territorial system. The nodes of the graph represent all the relevant elements in the territory, whose failure or breakdown can seriously influence the functionality of the whole territorial system. The links represent the influences among the functionalities of these elements. An iterative algorithm to compute the consequent systemic vulnerability is also described. In the conclusive section, a case study pertaining to the hydrological risk in the Valle Roja Area located near the North-West coast of Italy is presented.

A Distributed Information System Prototype to Detect and Monitor the Hazardous Material Transport on the Road in the Territory of Nice-Imperia-Ventimiglia

This paper presents a Decision Support System (DSS) for the detection and monitoring of Hazardous Material (hazmat) transportation on the road infrastructure Nice-Imperia-Savona between France and Italy that was developed in the TMD-NIS Interreg IIIA Alcotra Project. The final objective of the TMD-NIS project was to determine the most effective information and communication technologies and common operation strategies applicable in hazmat management in order to minimize the hazmat transport risk and to improve the road infrastructure safety conditions. An integrated and comparative assessment of the two alternative technologies was performed by the partners of the project: an image processing system to identify the ONU codes on the hazmat plates installed on each truck has been tested in France, while an on-board computer system to store and transmit information related to the hazmat physical conditions, vehicle’s locations and performance measures has been implemented in Italy. The collaboration between the different research institutions and the complementarities of the two specific approaches to define and monitor the hazmat vehicle flows allow comparison and validation of the acquired data related to the type, the amount and the itineraries of the hazmat vehicles which cover the trans-border road infrastructures daily. At present, the TMD-NIS project also provides a GIS utility that is available on the web to track in real-time hazmat vehicles that analyze data about hazmat flow and also to visualize the risk index for the highway from the toolbar barriers of St. Isidore (Nice) to the Ventimille.

Dynamic resource allocation for forest fire risk management

The occurrence of one or more simultaneous forest fires requires that decision makers are able to solve a complex problem of resources allocation to fight the fires. The efficiency of the emergency management system can be deeply affected by these decisions, which, in turn, are influenced by the predicted behavior of forest fires. In this paper, a methodology is introduced, based on system modeling and optimization, to manage resource allocation, for real time control of forest fires, over a regional area. While several studies have proposed different models of forest fire dynamics, a proper formalization related to the decision support aspect has not been so deeply investigated. In this work, a graph model and a mathematical formalization are introduced in order to describe the territory under consideration, and the dynamics of the detected fires. A specific case study in Liguria region (Italy) is presented, in order to highlight the feasibility of the proposed approach.

TOWARDS A GRID INFRASTRUCTURE FOR HYDRO-METEOROLOGICAL RESEARCH

The Distributed Research Infrastructure for Hydro-Meteorological Study (DRIHMS) is a coordinatedaction co-funded by the European Commission. DRIHMS analyzes the main issuesthat arise when designing and setting up a pan-European Grid-based e-Infrastructure for researchactivities in the hydrologic and meteorological fields. The main outcome of the projectis represented first by a set of Grid usage patterns to support innovative hydro-meteorologicalresearch activities, and second by the implications that such patterns define for a dedicatedGrid infrastructure and the respective Grid architecture.

EO data for rapid risk analysis with the RASOR platform

Climate change challenges our understanding of risk by modifying hazards and their interactions. Sudden increases in population and rapid urbanization are changing exposure to risk around the globe, making impacts harder to predict. RASOR will develop a platform to perform multi-hazard risk analysis for the full cycle of disaster management, including targeted support to critical infrastructure monitoring and climate change impact assessment. A scenario driven query system simulates future scenarios based on existing or assumed conditions and compares them with historical scenarios. Initially available over five case study areas, RASOR will ultimately offer global services to support in-depth risk assessment and full-cycle risk management.