13^th October 2018, Torino, Italy

The research project I-REACT, funded by the European Commission, and coordinated by the Istituto Superiore Mario Boella of Turin, launched on the 13^th October a free app to keep citizens safe from floods, fires and extreme weather.

The app enables its users to share pictures and other information on natural hazards and in turn provides essential information about the risks of suffering from these threats. The free app, available through Google Play, aims to provide citizens with tools to build a society more resilient to disasters and is launched with the occasion of the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Just in 2017, disasters like floods, wildfires and earthquakes killed more than 9000 people worldwide, affected 96 million, and caused €270 billion in losses —it is the second costliest year in disasters on record. […]

“Our approach aims to empower all European citizens, enabling them to take a more active role in preventing disasters.”, says Dr. Fabrizio Dominici, head of the Mobile Solution research area at the Istituto Superiore Mario Boella (ISMB), Italy, and coordinator of the I-REACT project. “The users of the app can monitor environmental conditions and share useful information such as photos and other data that will help other citizens be prepared.”

These reports can be verified and rated by the rest of the users, so citizens can filter the relevant information and avoid the propagation of fake news. The same approach is applied to tweets: the app filter relevant tweets in real time, to offer the users only informative content related to emergency events happening in their surroundings. Also, the app also includes a set of tips and quizzes on what to do in case of a flood, a wildfire or other extreme-weather event.

The app also features risk maps, that let people know at every moment the likelihood of being affected by extreme weather events, flood and fires. […]

“One of the key players during emergency situations are citizens themselves”, says Dr. Dominici,”so we wanted to provide them the tools they need to stay safe. The app is the easiest way to do so: its free, and it can be used on your phone. Hopefully, it will contribute to create safer communities and save lives in the process.”

For the last two years, the European project I-REACT has been developing technological tools to prevent and respond better against natural hazards. Among the technologies developed by the project are a Big Data platform to predict better the occurrence of this type of events, wearables and smart glasses for first responders, so they can receive and send information without using their hands, and a decision support system for emergency coordinators, that enables them to take the best decision possible considering all the information available. I-REACT is complementary to existing solutions and its implementation is highly modular so as to be easily integrated with current operational platforms.

You can download the full press release here: I-REACT Press Release App