Events

TEREX - Tuscany earthquake relief exercise 2010

November 25–28, Tuscany, Italy

e-GEOS took part in the international exercise TEREX 2010 (Tuscany Earthquake Relief EXercise), organised by the Italian civil protection department and held in Tuscany from 25 to 28 November. The exercise simulated the effects of an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre in Piazza al Serchio (Lucca), as happened in 1920.

e-GEOS acted as Rapid Mapping provider in the SAFER  (Services and Applications For Emergency Response) project and as coordinator of the LINKER project,  whose main objective is to implement technical and procedural interfaces between GMES ERS (Emergency Response Services) and users to facilitate the optimal utilisation and operational use of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) services.

e-GEOS, present at the DI.COMA.C (Command and Control Centre) equipped for training purposes, provided information from satellite images produced from its GMES services, and cartographic material to support damage survey activities. As These data are more current than the existing technical cartography, they were considered particularly useful.

By simulating a catastrophe, the Terex exercise was intended to test and assess the response capacity of the civil protection system at national and international level, reduce deployment times for European SAR teams, and speed up the decision-making process at central and local levels, as well as European level, by activating the emergency response model.

Internationally, Terex aims to assess the Italian model of receiving and using foreign Search and Rescue teams and to test the capacity of the Italian system to activate and use national resources as part of the Community Mechanism for civil protection.

Italy, Austria, Croatia, France, Slovenia and the Russian Federation took part in the exercise, which numbered 2,400 persons used in 600 vehicles (in addition to 200 persons of the SAR teams of other countries with 55 vehicles). There were 3,940 tents mounted, six advanced medical posts, one field hospital (from Russia) and 12 resuscitation stations.