Program
Research for civil security Announcement: "SifoLIFE - Demonstration of innovative, networked security solutions"
Total funding of 5.6 million euros
Project duration October 2023 - September 2027
Project Partner
District of Meißen - Meißen District Office - Administration Department - Office for Fire, Civil Protection and Rescue, Meißen
Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences - Department of Water, Environment, Construction and Safety, Magdeburg
Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering gGmbH, Potsdam
KomRe AG, Berlin
snafu Gesellschaft für interaktive Netzwerke mbH, Berlin
Hörmann Warnsysteme GmbH, Kirchseeon
Project Description
The project “Integrated, autarkic, and outage-protected crisis communication in Meißen County” (KriKom-LK-MEI) aims to implement, test, and demonstrate a self-sufficient, integrative crisis communication system (KriKom system) for disaster control.
In case of crises and disasters, this system enables the collection, generation, and communication of crisis-relevant information between the municipal disaster control, the authorities and organizations with security tasks (BOS), the operators of critical infrastructures (KRITIS), and the population.
In the event of a disaster, such as a natural event or a technical incident (with prolonged area-wide failure of infrastructures), reliable crisis communication can be vital. It is not only important to warn the affected population quickly and effectively and to provide reliable and trustworthy information about the situation, but also to network municipal disaster control with BOS and KRITIS and to sustainably ensure the supply of time-critical and mission-critical resources. In addition, security is a top priority in communications; exchanged messages must remain confidential, the integrity and authenticity of participants and messages must be guaranteed.
To shape the KriKom strategy and to guide and support the technical design, so-called use cases or application scenarios were derived from the threat scenario and are being explored further in this part of the project. The use cases/application scenarios serve to identify requirements and functions of a self-sufficient crisis communication system, but also to show required interfaces between individual (technological) components and subsystems, thus enabling user-centered evaluation and validation procedures in the future.
This project started in October 2023 and will run for four years. Within this period, in addition to two student projects for the exploration and validation of the use cases, further design thinking activities (multi-stakeholder workshops, co-design of systemic solutions, etc.) will take place.
Motivation
In crises and disasters, the authorities and emergency services need to act quickly and purposefully in order to manage the situation as efficiently as possible. In addition to providing immediate assistance, it must also be ensured that information can be exchanged and warnings and emergency calls can be made. This requires communication channels between civil protection, critical infrastructures and the population that can be maintained even if communication infrastructures or the power supply fail.
Objectives and procedure
With the "SifoLIFE - Demonstration of innovative, networked security solutions" competition, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is supporting a total of five cities and districts in testing new security solutions for disaster control. The aim of the joint project KriKomLK-MEI is to develop a self-sufficient, integrative crisis communication system for disaster control in the district of Meißen. The system will be set up as a model and comprehensively demonstrated. This ensures direct communication between all stakeholders, including the population, in the event of a crisis. Furthermore, possibilities for improved alerting and for making emergency calls, e.g. via intelligent siren locations and digital bulletin boards, are provided. Logistics systems for battery storage and fuel are integrated to secure the energy supply. The system is being extensively tested with the active participation of the population.
Innovations and prospects
In the event of a crisis or disaster, the system can enable the collection, generation and communication of crisis-relevant information between the relevant stakeholders independently of the existing communication infrastructure. The solution can be transferred to other municipalities.
