PHAROS

Figure 1: Emergency Management Cycle

Figure 2: PHAROS Long Term System Architecture

Project on a Multi-Hazard Open Platform for Satellite Based Downstream Services

The PHAROS project was funded under the EU programme FP7-SEC, aimed at designing and implementing an innovative multi-hazard service platform which integrates space-based observation, satellite communications and navigation assets to provide sustainable pre-operational services for a wide variety of users in multi-application domains, such as early detection of risks and emergencies, environmental monitoring, risk and crisis management and population alerting.

In more detail, the emergency management process cycle (mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery), has been long validated through several initiatives, both at national and European levels, to provide services focusing on rapid mapping based on Copernicus data and enhanced situational awareness, which have been taken as reference by PHAROS. Furthermore, satellite communications are a valuable asset for emergency management since they provide robustness and resilience in disaster situations, where the existing communication infrastructures might have been seriously damaged or not existing at all. In this view, the PHAROS platform allowed the combined use of satellite links not only to increase system availability, but also to communicate with citizens using communication satellites as a suitable alerting channel. Finally, navigation satellites, thanks to their availability and the high penetration of receiver devices can be used as an additional link for alert messages dissemination and for providing location-based alerting services.

The main achievements of PHAROS have been to:

Reach a large set of potential users spanning both institutional users, such as authorities and crisis managers (primary users) and non-institutional users, such as insurance companies and research groups (secondary users).
To develop an operational platform, based on technology adaptation and transfer to provide an integrative solution based on existing developments at the Project Consortium. The implemented pre-operational system provides a multi-hazard platform in the long term, while focusing on the forest fire scenario for the implementation and pilot demonstration phases in the short term.
To validate the concept in a pilot demonstration in area of Catalunia (Spain) to show the added value offered by the platform to citizens and first responders in the management of a forest fire crisis situation.

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