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Emergency Management

GIO-EMS (The Emergency Management Service)

The GIO Emergency Management Service (GIO EMS) was the first GMES service to become operational. GIO EMS started operations on April 1st, 2012 and consists of a set of services funded by the European Commission.

The GMES emergency management service addresses, with a worldwide coverage, a wide range of emergency situations resulting from natural or man-made disasters. It covers in particular:

  • Floods
  • Earthquakes
  • Landslides
  • Severe Storms
  • Fires
  • Technological disasters
  • Volcanic eruptions
  • Humanitarian crises
  • Tsunamis

Until 1st April 2012, the pre-operational emergency management service of GMES was provided through the EU-funded project SAFER. On 1st April 2012, the mapping component of the GMES Emergency Management Service (GIO EMS - Mapping) entered into Initial Operations.

The implementation of the GIO-EMS service foresees 3 different modules:

  1. mapping in rush mode
  2. mapping in non-rush mode
  3. external validation

This service provision is tailored to the on-demand verification of a sample of service outputs produced by the rush mode or non-rush mode services, and includes external quality control, validation of thematic information content and comparison to alternative information sources related to the emergency context.

Reference:http://portal.ems-gmes.eu/

SAFER (Project closed since April 2012)

SAFER started on 1st January 2009 and finished in April 2012. The project was partly funded by the European Commission under the 7th Framework Programme. It provided a reactive cartographic service to the registered users involved in the management of humanitarian crisis, natural disasters and man-made emergency situations with timely and high quality products derived from Space Observation.

Safer Activity was built on 2 main activities:

  • The Emergency Response service: its priority was the delivery of Emergency Response products, available in rush mode, to European Civil protections and Humanitarian actors. This was the forefront of the GMES service and therefore the most visible part.
  • The Emergency Support Service: the scope was sustaining and completing Emergency Response Service by providing reference products and situation maps. These geo-information products were specifically dedicated to the preparedness and recovery phases of a crisis.