ALACRES2 Synthesis

The objective of the ALACRES2 Project is to activate a Permanent Laboratory able to identify, test and validate integrated procedures for managing emergencies in the case of accidents, crises or significant accidents occurring during the loading and unloading of goods and dangerous substances in port. ; this in order to identify univocal management and behavioral protocols to assist the improvement of workers' skills in the emergencies of one of the most weak and critical phases of the logistic chain of this type of goods, determined by physical discontinuity in the passage from the sea side to the land side (and vice versa). The activity therefore has the task of investigating the behavior of the various operational figures called to the management of emergencies in the event of an incident during the boarding and disembarking procedures, testing new behavioral protocols, new operating standards, new monitoring and control procedures. Emergency, new support technologies for infrastructure and on-board systems. In particular, the Laboratory aims to investigate and analyze the behavioral procedures and protocols of the following subjects:

For the different types, Simulation, Serious Games, Augmented and Virtual Reality will be used to test the operational procedures from the emergence of the emergency condition, testing the response and human behavior to varying the conditions of stress, overload, redundancy or absence of information, etc. The Simulators of the ALACRES2 Laboratory will allow to carry out realistic reproductions of the crisis thanks to the use of simulation techniques of operational and decisional behavior aimed at training the different subjects to carry out their respective tasks in conditions of psychophysical stress and work overload. ; this approach allows to evaluate incorrect processes, incorrect methods of sending and / or managing information, decisions that do not comply with external conditions, etc. The simulation makes it possible to reproduce the evolution of the crisis and the impact on structures, systems, people and goods, considering both the physical aspects and the domino effect due to its dynamism. Furthermore, it is possible to test the effectiveness of new technological and infrastructural solutions to reduce vulnerability, mitigate damage and prevent the development of emergencies. The simulation techniques employed adopt the new MS2G paradigm (Modeling, interoperable Simulation and Serious Games) to be able to combine different models and guarantee a high level of fidelity and at the same time the simplicity of use, the intuitiveness and the immersiveness of these simulations that can be distributed. In this way it becomes possible to recreate the emergency scenario globally, by means of immersive virtual reality technologies, thus allowing the involved operators to operate and simulate their work performance within scenarios that faithfully reproduce, from the visual point of view and sound, the real emergency conditions and that guarantee an involvement in the crisis. ALACRES2 plans to involve both the technical partners intended to construct the virtual reality environments and to develop the laboratory instruments, as well as the operational partners, in charge for the development of the emergency procedures and the tests.

ALACRES2 benefits from a previous project on the management of emergencies in the field of Industrial Plants called DIEM-SSP, or Disasters and Emergencies Management for Safety and Security in Industrial Plants in which the Simulation Team of the University of Genoa and the Simulation Group of the DICAAR of the University of Cagliari had held leadership roles in the development of models and procedures of experimentation with particular attention to the simulation of human factors (www.liophant.org/projects/diem-ssp). In the specific context the concept of Extended Maritime Framework (EMF) developed by the Simulation Team of the University of Genoa, which considers the marine context in the different domains that influence it the surface of the sea, the underwater world, the sky, the coast, cyberspace and space); in this way we will construct models that consider the different elements and active systems and their interactions in the face of crises and disasters, including also the human component. Disasters and operational scenarios will be defined with particular attention to the needs of Operational Partners to maximize the impact on the territory and the fallout of research into concrete results that increase safety in the marine environment. In particular, this research will lead to the realization of a Simulation System that will reproduce two specific types of accidents / disasters (eg tank explosion, accident during loading / unloading operations), critical in each of the ports related to the four different regional contexts involved (ie Tuscany, Sardinia, Corsica, PACA). These results are possible thanks to the resources and the models made available for this project by the Simulation Team of the University of Genoa and the University of Cagliari which will be appropriately adapted, customized and implemented on the different Scenarios to build a Virtual Emergencies Testing Laboratory.