Snowball project

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SnowBall consists in a deep analysis of cascading effects and development of methods to anticipate them; and in a Decision Support System able to display current crisis monitoring and results of simulated decisions integrating cascading effects, thanks to a data collection system, an Events Log Database, Simulators and a Dashboard. SnowBall innovates in its modular approach to crises, its modelling techniques, its agent-supported coupled grid simulations, its generic Events Log Database and tools to follow public behaviour (Emergency Alert, social networks, mobile application).

The project has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No. 606742

Project Overview

Context and objectives

Project details

Title: Lower the impact of aggravating factors in crisis situations thanks to adaptative foresight and decision-support tools Call: SEC-2013.4.1-2 Better understanding of the cascading effect in crisis situation in order to improve future response and preparedness and contribute to lower damages and other unfortunate consequences – Capability Project.
Duration: 3 years from 1st of March 2014 to 28th of February 2017
Consortium: 11 partners
Project Coordinator: Gedicom
Project Officer: Cristina Longo

The challenge

In the context of hyper-connected societies -where networks of all sorts are intertwined – with population densities growing everyday, it is necessary to better understand the cascading effects at play in a crisis.

Project Objectives

The overall objective of the project is to increase the preparedness of the European Union in respect to hazards that could amplify a large crisis. In the framework of SnowBall project, a dedicated tool will be developed in order to:

Apprehend and better predict and simulate the cascading effects that occur in a crisis;
Integrate population response and behaviour to the simulation tools;
Provide decision support to public authorities and decision makers in the light of cascading effects simulations;
Test the efficiency of the tool in the frame of various demonstrations.

Methodology

To develop the platform dedicated to monitoring the crisis and predicting the cascading effects that might occur, Snowball will analyse the needs and the practices of potential end-users (decision makers, goverments...). A extensive study of previous crisis and the events which occurred and which amplified the its impact will also be carried out, to determine a road map for forecasting cascading effects. On the basis of these two studies, the Snowball project will determine the necessary data to be fed into the tool, the links between crisis events and how they can be predicted.

Expected Results

A methodology for apprehending cascading effects adaptable to different levels of data availability.
A platform for assessing a crisis, predicting cascading effects, simulating the evolution, displaying the events and providing a decision support.