Author: Lorenzo Nerantzis

  Here in beAWARE, we would like to wish to all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays !! A big thank you for your efforts and devotion in our project within 2018! We also would like to wish a Happy New year, full of beautiful moments and experiences and remember always to beAWARE! Check out our latest newsletter for the heatwave pilot of last month and do not forget to subscribe to our new YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoogTOO-dmd4JSS47gC1nGw https://beaware-project.eu/heatwave-pilot-newsletter/

  Our new NEWSLETTER is online!! Check out all our latest news about our first heatwave pilot last month in Greece, in the city of Thessaloniki, and beAWARE for our latest news! Newsletter Heatwave Pilot Here in beAWARE, we would like to wish to all Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a joyful 2019!! A big thank you for your efforts and devotion in our project within 2018!

  Hat tip to all those participants in SRE2018 that visited our booth and to our beloved colleagues from CERTH that were there to present our project, the components of the beAWARE platform and answer any question of our visitors!!

  The first day of the pilot started with a presentation of the beAWARE platform and its functionalities. Present were all the consortium members as well as representatives from rescue organizations and civil protection authorities! A presentation of the beAWARE mobile app was undertaken and all participants installed it in their phone in order to see first hand the tools and mechanisms. Moreover, the Command Center and the capabilities its offers were shown to the participants, including training on the platform functionalities. The second day of beAWARE pilot exercise started with a briefing of the players and their role. Next, participants were divided into teams which were later deployed in the city to simulate the emergencies coming from a heatwave. Additionally, a PSAP operating room was set for the evaluation of the platform and its…

  For the purpose of the Horizon 2020 BeAWARE project, the first pilot exercise will take place at the headquarters of the Hellenic Rescue Team in Thessaloniki from 19 to 20 November 2018! The aim of this first pilot is to assess the use and evaluation of the system in extreme weather events related with heatwaves. The scenario will present what is being done today and the improvements that the platform can offer to the public authorities and citizens. Upcoming for the project, two other pilots are scheduled for next year: one in Valencia where the system capabilities will be tested in cases of forest fires and the second in Vicenza where floods will be the scenario where the beAWARE platform will be called upon to support the decision makers…

  CERTH-ITI team had the best performing visual and fusion method and the second overall score among all teams in MediaEval18 – Multimedia Satellite Task! Analysis of social media images and fusion of textual and visual information on a very ambiguous test collection using the team’s DCNN architecture led to this success in flood evidence recognition and road passability estimation.  http://www.multimediaeval.org/mediaeval2018/multimediasatellite/

This summer in Greece was quite unusual in comparison with previous years. Stronger north winds in August (but weaker in July), warmer seas in the Aegean Sea than the Ionian, lack of periods of very high temperatures, record heavy rains and very intense activity of lightening have characterized this summer at an unprecedented level. According to the Weather Observatory of the National Observatory of Athens, the seven most notable features of the summer of 2018 (June-July-August) in the Greece were: The number of days with strong northern winds (meltemia) in the Aegean in July was impressively low, with only eight days (the lowest number of days in the last ten years). On the contrary, this August was a month with a high frequency of strong northern winds (24 days of…

Check out our third newsletter with a lot of interesting information on: Developments regarding the project Many news on the extreme weather events of this summer in Europe, the new capacities coming from using drones and the academic researcher that show the necessity to adopt risk assessment plans Participation of beAWARE in events and conferences Updates from our workshop in ISCRAM News from our plenary meetings be AWARE for the next newsletter in few months, after our pilot in Thessaloniki on 19-21 November!! beAWARE- Newsletter 3o

  Barely a week goes by that we don’t see a hurricane, heatwave, earthquake, flood, or other catastrophic weather anomaly reported in the world news. Extreme weather phenomenon are becoming more and more prevalent, and I often wonder what technology local governments use to coordinate warnings, efforts, and instructions to civilians. Are they incorporating more recent tech like IoT, AI, wearables, drones, and crowdsourcing to handle crisis-management more efficiently? This past year I got my chance to find out and begin contributing to this transformation, along with colleagues from IBM Research and the EU. The beAWARE-EU funded consortium seeks to augment existing crisis management solutions with innovative technology that integrates improved forecasting, early warning systems, data aggregation, and management coordination for first responders and authorities. Where the drones come in Crisis management…

  This year all around the European peninsula, extreme weather phenomena altered the ordinary life and habits of millions of Europeans during the summertime. Starting from Northern Europe, throughout Scandinavia, many areas in Norway, Sweden and Finland hit all-time highs this summer. By analyzing data from weather stations in northern Europe, the researchers found that a high barometric barrier prevented the jet stream from blowing in northern Europe and kept away the heavy Atlantic clouds. As a result, for Denmark, June 2018 was the warmest of the last 26 years. July was the sunniest of all times, while the night of 30th to July 31st was the second warmest in the history of the country. In Finland, areas north of the Arctic Circle made a record of 33°C while the…