SnowBall

SnowBall - Lower the impact of aggravating factors in crisis situations thanks to adaptive foresight and decision-support tools - is a research project partially funded by FP7 program under the Topic SEC-2013.4.1-2.

Project’s overall objective is to increase preparedness and response capacities of decision-makers, emergency planners and first responders in respect to amplifying hazards in large disasters. SnowBall innovates in its modular approach to crises, its modelling techniques, its generic Events Log Database and tools to follow public behaviour (Emergency Alert, social networks, mobile application). A cloud-based computing infrastructure of the decision support system will be developed in order to respond efficiently to the needs of the DSS in terms of processing time and computing resources. Study and analysis of state of the art of Cloud Computing platforms (private, public and hybrid models) with a special focus on Private Cloud solutions will be made.

Within SnowBall, ISMB will mainly contribute to:

• Build a cloud-based computing infrastructure to support DSS tools.
• Supervise data collection and develop the data layer to enable the integration of data from all formats.
• Develop mobile services able to fit with the real needs and constraints (applying a user-centered approach);
• develop mobile solutions (native, hybrid, web based) and locative services sensible to location (2D and 3D Cartography/GIS), context, presence.
• Contribute to the Crisis management Dashboard, by developing the decision algorithm at the root of the DSS through adequate modeling techniques.