Articles

User-generated data as a basis for geographical decision support has evolved from a basic research field to an application-oriented state. User-generated data is now widely recognised and a largely high-quality foundation for decision support in various application areas. The TEMA project will advance the use of geo-social media towards generic decision support, independent of geographical regions, languages, or use cases, and in near real-time.

While an early wildfire season in Canada is causing much trouble to people and nature, a storm pushed a cloud of smoke southward to the USA. There the smoke is causing the worst air quality levels in history, and this proves how wildfires can affect people’s lives even kilometres far from where they burn land. So, it is essential to implement projects like TEMA to help control wildfires.

The recent flood in Emilia Romagna showed that the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are increasing, and we need to prepare more. In the Horizon EU framework, there is the TEMA project, where the partner organisations are developing a platform that will help predict natural disaster evolutions and help the situational awareness of First Responders, using as a pilot a 2021 event: the Ahrtal flood.

In Europe, the occurrence of extreme events, like forest fires and floods, is ever increasing in magnitude and damage severity. While contemporary technologies appear matured, new tools must be developed to more accurately, efficiently and effectively manage ND. TEMA aims to achieve this at European level: with its pan-European, fully qualified and multidisciplinary consortium, TEMA will develop an NDM-AaaS functionality that will facilitate NDM platform interoperability across European countries and regions.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism was created in 2001 to coordinate member states’ Civil Protection Corps and to help countries in need in the EU and worldwide. Since then, it has been reformed and improved to guarantee effectiveness in every emergency situation, but there are Horizon EU projects that can enhance it even further to save as many lives as possible all over the world.

Wildfires seriously harm flora & fauna, but also human life because they can cause severe diseases and even death. Recently, the number of these events surged, and in the upcoming years, it will worsen due to climate change causing draughts and changes in the forest’s compositions. Therefore, to prevent serious damage, it is mandatory to improve the preparedness and the response system. The Horizon Europe Project TEMA has this goal and is meant to be tested on wildfire response in Finland and Italy.

The recent events in Syria and Turkey showed the world how important it is to have efficient Emergency Management (EM) or Natural Disaster Management (NDM) system. Earthquakes, wildfires, and floods, only to name some, are difficult or sometimes impossible to predict, and having the instruments to react quickly is crucial to saving lives when those events occur. Especially when rescuers intervene, they often get lost in the destruction caused by natural and man-made disasters, so a mapping service is vital for them to do their job. The European Union developed an EM service called COPERNICUS that uses satellites to map the affected areas. But, sometimes, satellite imagery isn’t reliable enough, and new technologies can help to fill this gap.