iSAR+ New Media in Crisis Situations

Internet and social media have become an integral part of life for many people. As the reliance on mobile communication devices increases more and more in the daily routines (e.g. mobile communicating via e-mail and through Social Networking Sites, retrieving the news, navigating with help of GPS, getting support in online forums), it seems natural that people will also rely on this communication form when it comes to crisis situation - may it be as a witness, bystander or victim. From the standpoint of First Responders (FRs) and Public Protection and Disaster Relief (PPDR) organizations, it is therefore important, not only to be aware of this development, but also to take measure and develop procedures, guidelines and tools to incorporate (mobile) online communication as an additional information and communication channel.
Within the project iSAR+ the research and development of a set of guidelines was aimed that, in emergencies or crises, enable citizens using new mobile and online technologies to actively participate in the response effort, through the bi-directional provision, dissemination, sharing and retrieval of information essential for critical PPDR intervention, in search and rescue, and medical assistance. Those guidelines shall among all enable a smooth integration of iSAR+ solutions into the current CONOPS of PPDR (e.g. through technological, organizational, ethical and legal and human perspectives). In order to accomplish this, iSAR+ aimed at demonstrating and validating its main concepts by means of a technological platform presented to end-users in an interactive exercise - namely a prototype that was delivered according to a spiral model of system design (i.e. successful iterations). The main results of the ISAR+ project are summarized in the book.