The HEIMDALL project, funded under the Horizon 2020 program will be active from 2017 to 2020 under the coordination of the German Space Agency (DLR). It was designed after the results of two previous FP7 projects: PHAROS and RASOR. EIMDALL will merge two platforms, PHAROS, an emergency management system during the event phase, and RASOR, a tool to create impact scenarios that can be used as a basis for emergency plans.
HEIMDALL will be the name of the new open source platform, both in code and data and in use, born from the combination of both systems and its main innovation will be the chance to create dynamic impact scenarios with time coordinates: instead of having a static impact scenario, it will be possible to evolve the same impact scenario in time, allowing to understand which buildings and artefacts are likely to be damaged first and afterwards. In this way, the effectiveness of interventions in the various phases of the scenario can be better evaluated and planned.
In case of a forest fire, for example, it will be possible to calculate the expected burned area, the persons involved and the damage suffered while, at the same time, it will be possible to calculate the event evolution and to understand the effect of using a Canadair or other fire fighting tools.
HEIMDALL will guarantee a real-time evaluation of events facilitating decisions to operators in the functional centres. In addition it will provide field operators with platform-based information through a specially developed application and a up-to- date risk scenarios. HEIMDALL will provide an analysis of three types of extreme events: forest fires, floods and landslides. These three events can also be evaluated in their interaction, as a forest fire may increase the risk of landslides due to soil dryness. CIMA Research Foundation will carry out two main activities: i) a flood modelling and its interaction with landslides; ii) the development of a scenario simulator and its evolution over time.