interoperability in disaster management: a hope or …...interoperability in disaster management: a...

Interoperability in disaster management:a hope or a wish?

3rd International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Disaster Management

Dr. M.Eng. Uberto Delprato

IES Solutions srl

Outline

• Interoperability: what do we mean and why should we care?

• Peace time vs. crisis time

• We are humans, aren’t we?

• And machines are machines: how to make them working for us

• Interoperabilty: a wish or a hope?

• Not a wishlist, but a to-do-list

• A quick conclusion (there is still a lot to do)

Interoperability:what do we mean and why should we care?

Make different systems able to operate together

• Queste tre linee sono in italiano, per farvi capire che diamo molte cose per scontate: anche solo per “interoperare tra di noi”, abbiamo deciso tacitamente di usare la lingua inglese

• The three lines above are in Italian, to make you realise that we givemany things for granted: just to be “interoperable”, we silently agreedto use the English language

• How many “interoperability agreements” do we give for granted, onlyto discover that they are not when we need them most?

Interoperability stack

Political Objectives

Harmonised Strategy/Doctrines

Aligned Operations

Aligned Procedures

Data Object/Model Interoperability

Information Interoperability

Protocol Interoperability

Physical Interoperability

Knowledge/Awareness

Sou

rce:

ESE

NET

pro

ject Syntactical interoperability

Semantical interoperability

Physical interoperability

Pragmatical interoperability

Social and culturalinteroperability

Sou

rce: NA

TO R

esearch Task G

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Interoperability

• It is a philosophy, that spans across all levels of activities

• It requires that everything works: a broken link breaks the chain, literally

• Many specialists form several disciplines must understand theirinterfaces

• A drive, a leader, a visionary must guide the process: things tend to stop to the “minimum level of energy”: interoperability needs to be fed

Peace time vs. crisis time

All organisations follow their own procedures


Organisations follow the LEMA’s (or equivalent) procedures


• In crisis time, procedures change, roles change, language change

• The ability to work together is dramatically challenged

• The time pressure (and that of survivors) exacerbates things

• Training and preparedness are key

• Humans must “interoperate”

• Machines must “interoperate” possibly as not planned

• Tools must “interoperate”

We are humans, aren’t we?

What do these three people (professionally) see?


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• Different cultures, different training, different habits (let alone different tempers!) hamper interoperability

• Yet, we do want to cooperate at do our best

• Technology can help, if it supports humans by adapting to their way of thinking and working

• No pure technical solution would be accepted by all

• A system for crisis management must not be different from a system for everyday business: humans cannot click a switch and work differently with technology

And machines are machines:how to make them working for us• Let’s focus on computers and, in particular, software programmes

• They help (a lot) in implementing the procedural workflow, store data, represent data on maps, allocate resources and follow the progress

• But they are built for the needs, requirements and preferences of one organisation: they are their legacy system and are hardly interoperable

• One of the keywords here is: STANDARDS

An example: eCall PSAP – TPSP interaction

PSAP

TPSP

PLMN

DATA

Data Gateway

VOICE

PBX

PBX

eCallApplication

TSDClient

Voice & Data

eCallApplication

Data

eCallModem

Data

Possible voice connection between PSAP and vehicle

occupants

PLMN

TSD Server

Vo

ice

Voice

Dat

aTr

ansf

er

Pan-European eCall

TPS eCall A standard applies:

EN 16102

AREU

ACI

A22

MSD

TSD

CUE-TN

112 Call

118-BS

“Contact Card” for 112 Calls & eCalls

AGGREGATOR

SHAREFEED

Internet

TSD

CAPFEED

FEED

SHARE

AGGREGATOR

Internet

CAP

DATEX II

FEED

AGGREGATOR

CAP

AGGREGATOR

Voice

Voice Call

TPSP

PSAP-1

PSAP-2PSAP-2 Other

CAP

Voice

Sou

rce:

I_H

eER

Op

roje

ct

Another example: a Common Information Space

Internet

Ad

apto

r

AdminWorkStation

Sou

rce:

EP

ISEC

C p

roje

ct

The EDXL family of standards is used

A third example: information interoperability

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EP

ISEC

C p

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EPISECC

taxonomy

Allagamento

Pompa idrovora

Flood

Pumping system

Poplava

Klipna crpkabroader

semantic matching

Allagamento (Poplava E)

semanticmapping

broader

exact

Pompa idrovora (Klipna crpka B)

exact

Organisation A Organisation B

semanticmapping

How to make the machines working for us

• Legacy systems must be kept: humans do not like to change, if not by their free will

• Standard-based components can be build to format information so that they can be shared

• Standard-based exchanged mechanisms must be implemented

• The real understanding of terms and concept must be supported by semantic and ontology services

• Security must be implemented at any level

Interoperabilty: a wish or a hope?

Emer

gen

cy R

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ila, 2

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9


Are we really considering interoperability as a target?

Wish/hope: are they different?

• Yes, they are!

• A wish is something we would very much like to have/achieve, but it is beyond our capacity• “Oh, I wish to know what my colleagues in Region X are doing right now”

• “We wish Country X will share the location of their resources with us”

• A hope is the expectation that something will be accomplished if everything you did was properly done• “I hope the message is understood” (and you DID send the message as it

should be sent)


• Interoperability must be actively pursued: it does not come for free

• Serendipity is hardly a good strategy when disasters strike

• All actors in the stack must do their part: without a good legal framework, no technology can succeed, without an efficient technical solution, no legal agreement can enforce interoperability

• Let’s not wish that sooner or later technology (e.g. the social media) will jump over the hurdles and magically deliver interoperable solutions

• Plan what to do, keep the people in focus

Interoperability stack (reprise)

Political Objectives

Harmonised Strategy/Doctrines

Aligned Operations

Aligned Procedures

Data Object/Model Interoperability

Information Interoperability

Protocol Interoperability

Physical Interoperability

Knowledge/Awareness

Sou

rce:

ESE

NET

pro

ject Syntactical interoperability

Semantical interoperability

Physical interoperability

Pragmatical interoperability

Social and culturalinteroperability

Sou

rce: NA

TO R

esearch Task G

rou

p

Not a wishlist, but a to-do-list

• Provided that there a political agreement (do check, please!)…

• ... Discuss the crisis management models and procedures...

• ... Share the structure of the information you need (not the information itself, for the time being) ...

• ... Identify a suitable set of standards (or call for new standards!) ...

• ... Design, implement and validate the set of tools needed for interoperating …

• ... Repeat.

A quick conclusion (there is still a lot to do)

• Interoperability is a complex, multidisciplinary and social problem, that requires focus, energy and long-lasting will

• Each complex problem can be studied if split in smaller problems

• We must be relentless: disasters happen and will keep happening; in particular their impact will be growing greater given the increasing exposed value in our societies

• Focus on your speciality, but do not lose the big picture: “interoperate” with your colleagues working on the layers closer to yours and improve the quality of the interfaces

• And be positive: we humans made a long way from the stone age and I do not expect us to stop at the social media age!

Thank youLet’s interoperate, now!

3rd International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Disaster Management

Dr. M.Eng. Uberto Delprato

IES Solutions srl

interoperability in disaster management: a hope or …...interoperability in disaster management: a...

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