Articles

Article about diffusion models used to generate realistic synthetic images of natural disasters. These models are capable of producing diverse and high-fidelity scenes based on simple text prompts like "flooded neighbourhood" or "forest fire with smoke".

Concept Activation Vectors (CAVs) provide a quantitative framework for interpreting deep neural networks by measuring the sensitivity of model predictions to high-level, human-defined concepts.

The EU Preparedness Union Strategy enhances civil protection through institutional preparedness, strategic reserves, and innovation. This article examines its climate focus, highlighting the TEMA project’s role in advancing situational awareness, predictive modelling, and cross-border coordination.

In the discipline of Natural Language Processing (NLP), sentiment analysis has evolved from basic polarity classification (positive vs. negative) of entire texts or sentences to more nuanced aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA), which identifies sentiments related to specific terms or phrases within a text.

In the fight against infernos, technology has emerged as a powerful tool and at the forefront of this innovation is Technosylva. Over the last decade, Technosylva has played a crucial role in California’s wildfire prevention and response efforts, developing cutting-edge technology that helps firefighters and emergency responders make informed decisions and act swiftly.

Starting on 7 January 2025, several severe wildfires raged in the Greater Los Angeles area. The department for Georisks and Civil Security at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) prepared damage assessment maps through automated analyses of satellite data. Burnt area perimeters could have been derived in near-real time after the acquisition from the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem.

In the last decade, however, the development of drones has accelerated significantly. The aircraft have become smaller and more affordable. Control systems have become simpler and smarter, and the range of applications has become increasingly diverse. Starting from research purposes, drones have found wide usage in all Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) organisations.

As the frequency and intensity of natural disasters such as wildfires, floods, and flash floods have increased due to the global climate change, there is a perceived need for innovative disaster management platforms, a need which is becoming more critical than ever.

The public sector is increasingly adopting practices to utilize existing information in order to make decisions for the future. In civil protection, evidence-based policymaking is used to evaluate risks and incident statistics and to guide prevention and preparedness work towards risk reduction and mitigation of future incidents.