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beAWARE

Enhancing decision support and management services in extreme weather climate events

In every disaster and crisis, incident time is the enemy, and getting accurate information about the scope, extent, and impact of the disaster is critical to creating and orchestrating an effective disaster response and recovery effort. The main goal of beAWARE is to provide support in all the phases of an emergency incident. More specifically, we propose an integrated solution to support forecasting, early warnings, transmission and routing of the emergency data, aggregated analysis of multimodal data and management the coordination between the first responders and the authorities. Our intention is to rely on platforms, theories and methodologies that are already used for disaster forecasting and management and add the elements that are necessary to make them working efficiently and in harm under the same objective.

The overall context for beAWARE lies in the domain of situational awareness and command and control (C2). The first phase concerns the forecast of the extreme condition and the relevant preparations. Once a disaster occurs, an initial assessment needs to be conducted as soon as possible to determine the scope, geographical distribution, and scale of the incident. Situational awareness means being able to accurately determine what has happened, what is happening now, and what will come next, all in order to plan and coordinate the most effective response possible with the resources available. This observation phase will lead to an orientation phase suggesting both an individual as well as collective “cognition” orientation to data that is sensed and communicated. Once orientation to the data (or the lack of it) occurs then a decision is made, ultimately resulting is the final step, which is “act”. The crisis management center is always striving or struggling to gain a sense of what is reality to be able to feel that he or she can make a decision that is the “best possible” given the circumstances.

PUBLICATIONS

  1. Michail, E., Giannakeris, P., Koulalis, I., Vrochidis, S. and Kompatsiaris, I. (2024). Innovative Visual Analysis Solutions to Support Disaster Management. In Responding to Extreme Weather Events (eds D. Sempere-Torres, A. Karakostas, C. Rossi and P. Quevauviller). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119741374.ch10
  2. K. Ioannidis,G. Orfanidis, M. Krestenitis, S. Vrochidis, & I. Kompatsiaris, "Sensor Data Fusion and Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures" , Terahertz (THz), Mid Infrared (MIR) and Near Infrared (NIR) Technologies for Protection of Critical Infrastructures Against Explosives and CBRN, Book Series: NATO Science for Peace and Security Series B: Physics and Biophysics, Springer Netherlands, 2021, 3-17. OPEN ACCESS
  3. G. Antzoulatos, P. Giannakeris, I. Koulalis, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "A Multi-Layer Fusion Approach For Real-Time Fire Severity Assessment Based on Multimedia Incidents", in Proceedings of the 17th ISCRAM Conference – Blacksburg, VA, USA May 2020, Amanda Lee Hughes, Fiona McNeil and Christopher Zobel (eds.), 2020. OPEN ACCESS
  4. K. Gkountakos, K. Ioannidis, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "ITI-CERTH participation in TRECVID 2019", Proc. TRECVID 2019 Workshop, Gaithersburg, MD, USA, Nov. 2019. OPEN ACCESS
  5. G. Antzoulatos, I. Koulalis, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, “Towards to integrate a multi-layer Machine Learning Data Fusion approach into Crisis Classification and Risk Assessment of extreme natural events”. In "Technology Development for Security Practitioners", edited by B. Akhgar, D. Kavallieros, E. Sdongos, Book series: Security Informatics and Law Enforcement, Springer, 2021. OPEN ACCESS
  6. S. Andreadis, M. Bakratsas, P. Giannakeris, A. Moumtzidou, I. Gialampoukidis, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "Multimedia Analysis Techniques for Flood Detection Using Images, Articles and Satellite Imagery", in Proceedings of the Working Notes Proceeding MediaEval Workshop, 27-29 October 2019, Sophia Antipolis, France. OPEN ACCESS
  7. P. Hertweck, J. Mossgraber, E. Kontopoulos, P. Mitzias, T. Hellmund, A. Karakostas, D. Hilbring, H. van der Schaaf, S. Vrochidis, J.-W. Blume and I. Kompatsiaris. “The Backbone of Decision Support Systems: The Sensor to Decision Chain”. IJISCRAM 10.4: 65-87. Web. 29 August 2019. OPEN ACCESS
  8. A. Tsanousa, G. Meditskos, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "A Weighted Late Fusion Framework for Recognizing Human Activity from Wearable Sensors", 10th International Conference on Information, Intelligence, Systems and Applications, 15-17 July 2019. OPEN ACCESS
  9. G. Antzoulatos, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "The Crisis Classification component to strengthen the early warning, risk assessment and decision support in extreme climate events", in Proceedings in 4th International Conference on Dynamic of Disasters - DOD 2019, Kalamata, 2019.
  10. E. Kontopoulos, P. Mitzias, S. Dasiopoulou, J. Mossgraber, S. Mille, P. Hertweck, T. Hellmund, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, L. Wanner, I. Kompatsiaris, "Applying Semantic Web Technologies for Decision Support in Climate-Related Crisis Management", in 2nd International Conference Citizen Observatories for natural hazards and Water Management (COWM 2018), 27-30 November 2018, Venezia, Italy. OPEN ACCESS
  11. G. S. Antzoulatos, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, F. Lombardo, D. Norbiato, M. Ferri, I. Kompatsiaris, "A Crisis Classification System for flood risk assessment: the beAWARE project", in 2nd International Conference Citizen Observatories for natural hazards and Water Management (COWM 2018), 27-30 November 2018, Venezia, Italy. OPEN ACCESS
  12. S. Andreadis, I. Gialampoukidis, R. Fiorin, F. Lombardo, D. Norbiato, A. Karakostas, M. Ferri, S. Vrochidis and I. Kompatsiaris, "Social Media Observations for Flood Event Monitoring in Italy over a One-Year Period", in 2nd International Conference Citizen Observatories for natural hazards and Water Management (COWM 2018), 27-30 November 2018, Venezia, Italy. OPEN ACCESS
  13. K. Avgerinakis, A. Moumtzidou, D. Galanopoulos, G. Orfanidis, S. Andreadis, F. Markatopoulou, E. Batziou, K. Ioannidis, S. Vrochidis, V. Mezaris, I. Kompatsiaris, "ITI-CERTH participation in TRECVID 2018", in Proc. TRECVID 2018 Workshop, Gaithersburg, MD, USA, Nov. 2018. OPEN ACCESS
  14. A. Moumtzidou, P. Giannakeris, S. Andreadis, A. Mavropoulos, G. Meditskos, I. Gialampoukidis, K. Avgerinakis, S. Vrochidis and I. Kompatsiaris, "A multimodal approach in estimating road passability through a flooded area using social media and satellite images", multimedia satellite task MediaEval 2018. In Proceedings of the Working Notes Proceeding MediaEval Workshop, Sophia Antipolis, France, 29-31 October, 2018. OPEN ACCESS
  15. D. C. Hilbring, J. Mossgraber, P. Hertweck, T. Hellmund, H. van der Schaaf, A. Karakostas, E. Kontopoulos, I. Gialampoukidis, S. Andreadis, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "Harmonizing Data Collection in an Ontology for a Risk Management Platform", in proceedings of Enviroinfo 2018, Shaker-Verlag.
  16. A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, Y. Kompatsiaris, B. Kantsepolsky, J. Mossgraber, S. Dasiopoulou, B. Mandler, A. Karppinen, M. Ferri, I. Vourvachis, C. Castro, K. Lintrup, "beWARE: Enhancing Decision Support and Management Services in Extreme Weather Climate Events", In proceedings of Enviroinfo 2018, Shaker-Verlag. https://beaware-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/factsheet_v2.pdf
  17. P. Giannakeris, V. Kaltsa, K. Avgerinakis, A. Briassouli, S. Vrochidis and I. Kompatsiaris,"Speed Estimation and Abnormality Detection from Surveillance Cameras'', in CVPRW NVIDIA AI City Challenge, 2018.
  18. P. Giannakeris, K. Avgerinakis, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis and I. Kompatsiaris, "People and vehicles in danger - A fire and flood detection system in social media", in 13th Workshop on IEEE Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Processing (IVMSP 2018), 10-12 June 2018, Zagori, Greece. OPEN ACCESS
  19. I. Gialampoukidis, A. Moumtzidou, S. Vrochidis and Y. Kompatsiaris, "Fusion of Compound Queries with Multiple Modalities for Known Item Video Search", in 13th Workshop on IEEE Image, Video, and Multidimensional Signal Processing (IVMSP 2018), 10-12 June 2018, Zagori, Greece. OPEN ACCESS
  20. E. Kontopoulos, P. Mitzias, J. Mossgraber, P. Hertweck, H. van der Schaaf, X. Hilbring, F. Lombardo, D. Norbiato, M. Ferri, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris,"Ontology-based Representation of Crisis Management Procedures for Climate Events", in 1st International Workshop on Intelligent Crisis Management Technologies for Climate Events (ICMT 2018), collocated with the 15th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM 2018). OPEN ACCESS
  21. J. Mossgraber, D. Hilbring, H. van der Schaaf, P. Hertweck, E. Kontopoulos, P. Mitzias, I. Kompatsiaris, S. Vrochidis, A. Karakostas, "The Sensor to Decision Chain in Crisis Management", In Int. Conf. on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM'18). OPEN ACCESS
  22. A. Moumtzidou, S. Andreadis, I. Gialampoukidis, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis and I. Kompatsiaris, "Flood relevance estimation from visual and textual content in social media streams", in WWW 2018 Workshop on Exploitation of Social Media for Emergency Relief and Preparedness (SMERP), 23 April 2018, Lyon, France. OPEN ACCESS
  23. E. Michail, A. Moumtzidou, I. Gialampoukidis, K. Avgerinakis, M. G. Scarpino, S. Vrochidis, G. Vingione, I. Kompatsiaris, K. Labbassi, M. Menenti, F.-E. Elghandour, "Testing a Flood Mask Correction Method Of Optical Satellite Imagery Over Irrigated Agricultural Areas", in 2nd Mapping Water Bodies from Space Conference (MWBS2018), 27-28 March 2018, ESA-ESRIN Frascati, Italy. OPEN ACCESS
  24. S. Andreadis, I. Gialampoukidis, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "A Topic Detection and Visualisation System on Social Media Posts", in International Conference on Internet Science, pp. 421-427. Springer, Cham, 2017.
  25. F. Markatopoulou, A. Moumtzidou, D. Galanopoulos, K. Avgerinakis, S. Andreadis, I. Gialampoukidis, S. Tachos, S. Vrochidis, V. Mezaris, I. Kompatsiaris, I. Patras, "ITI-CERTH participation in TRECVID 2017", in Proc. TRECVID 2017 Workshop, Gaithersburg, MD, USA, Nov. 2017. OPEN ACCESS
  26. K. Avgerinakis, P. Giannakeris, A. Briassouli, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "LBP-flow and hybrid encoding for real-time water and fire classification", in ICCV-MSF 2017, IEEE/ISPRS 4th Joint Workshop on Multi-Sensor Fusion for Dynamic Scene Understanding. DOI: 10.1109/ICCVW.2017.56
  27. K. Avgerinakis, P. Giannakeris, A. Briassouli, A. Karakostas, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "Intelligent traffic city management from surveillance systems (CERTH-ITI)", in NVIDIA AI city challenge, IEEE Smart World, Aug. 2017, USA.
  28. K. Avgerinakis, A. Moumtzidou, S. Andreadis, E. Michail, I. Gialampoukidis, S. Vrochidis, I. Kompatsiaris, "Visual and textual analysis of social media and satellite images for flood detection", in Multimedia Satellite task of MediaEval 2017.