Challenge
During emergency interventions in the event of a fire, an accident or another incident, the various emergency services work closely together. On site, they must be able to communicate and cooperate as efficiently as possible in order to complete the intervention quickly and adequately. Crucial to this is that all emergency services involved have access to as much up-to-date and accurate information about the situation as possible as quickly as possible. Ideally, that information should come from a single verified source ('single source of truth') and be immediately available to everyone.
In emergency interventions, a lot of relevant data about the incident (and the environment, people involved, etc.) are collected, such as (dash, body, drone, etc.) camera images, data from the Internet or Things (IoT) or track & trace devices, personal and property information, data from checks or permits, etc.
With the PIP project Multi-purpose Security and Communication Platform (MSCP), Fire Department Zone Antwerp (BZA) and Digipolis aim to develop an open IT architecture through which all relevant data about an incident can be made available quickly (and of course GDPR compliant) to all emergency services involved for quick consultation and for integration into their own systems (Application Programming Interfaces - APIs). The aim is that relevant data obtained during an emergency intervention by a particular emergency service can be made rapidly available via the MSCP to all other emergency services (via their own APIs) involved in the same incident. The MSCP becomes the central data source ('single source of truth') through which all parties involved in an emergency intervention can quickly obtain all correct (and verified) relevant information.
In this way, all emergency services involved in an incident can also address the incident as a 'virtual intervention team'. Emergency services that are already on site can brief those on the way on the status of the incident so that they can immediately take the appropriate action upon arrival. The type of incident, and linked to this the type of intervention, determines the context in which the various emergency services must act and cooperate: which (rolling) equipment must be deployed, who will take on which tasks, who will command and/or coordinate the intervention, etc. All this can be captured by the virtual intervention team (and via the MSCP) from the start of the intervention.
Safety and therefore security of the entire communication and collaboration process between the emergency services involved is crucial, not only because of the information that has to be shared securely (and GDPR compliant) but also in order to maintain trust within the virtual team. The major innovation of the MSCP lies in the creation of a secure environment for information exchange between the various emergency services. There are no ready-made solutions available on the market for this yet.
BZA and Digipolis do not have to start from an empty sheet in order to realise the intended MSCP but can further build on the already existing (open data based) infrastructure of the Antwerp City Platform as a Service (ACPaaS) as a foundation for new developments. Interesting inspiration can be drawn from (virtual) environments for online multiplayer games.
If successful, the MSCP can also be extended to other cities and municipalities, and to other emergency services.
