Autors:

Tamás ENDRŐDI (Hungarian Civil Protection Association), Kinga PERGE (EUSDR Environmental Risks Priority Area / Budapest Firefighter Association), Regine GERHARDS (German Federal Agency
For Technical Relief (THW)) and Andreas SEIPELT (ARTTIC Innovation GmbH)

Abstract:

During the past five and a half years the DAREnet project facilitated fruitful exchanges and supported the identification of innovation opportunities with the aim to contribute to a more disaster-resilient Danube Region. This resulted in the compilation of a comprehensive state-of-the-art report, titled:
“Towards a macro-regional disaster management framework in the Danube Region”.
The report was developed in close collaboration with the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR ) PA5 Disaster Management Working Group and provides insights into a multitude of activities and projects that were implemented in the past years. The report brings forward eleven policy recommendations that aim to support building and strengthening macro-regional approaches to disaster management in the Danube Region.

The project is particularly proud that the report was thoroughly discussed and endorsed by key policy representatives from DG HOME, DG ECHO, DG REGIO, EUSDR PA5, ICPDR and EUSBSR during the final project event in Bratislava.
We look forward to further expanding and consolidating our network to strengthen the cooperation within the Danube region and beyond.
DAREnet would like to thank all partners and colleagues for their collaboration and support.

Autors:

Leon Pietschman (University of Cambridge and Havard University), Fritz Pickhardt (German Federal Agency for Technical Relief)

Abstract:

This paper investigates the use of Virtual Reality (VR) in an emergency service and civil protection context. We present an exploratory user study with 30 participants sourced from the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) who were tasked with completing VR training on the assembly of a rescue platform. We evaluated the time to completion, mistakes made, cognitive load, usability, motivation, and perceived helpfulness of visual guidance elements implemented in the VR environment. The results indicate a positive effect of VR training. In addition to sourcing from a pool of emergency service workers as participants for our study, we report on the participants’ feedback concerning other potential application areas for VR training in an emergency service context, which further sets our contribution apart from previous work. The paper contributes to the field of human-computer interaction by providing insights into the complex relationship between VR training and
emergency service personnel.

Download of the ForAn logo for partners and members.

The presentation introduces the German Practitioner Network for Civil Security Research. Both the initial situation and the goals and methods of the project are presented.

The flyer presents the German Practitioner Network for Civil Security Research.

The flyer presents the German Practitioner Network for Civil Security Research in the English language.