The Civil Protection Department is taking part in Socionical, a four year integrated project with 14 partners in 10 EU member states aimed to plan more effective movement of people at times of an emergency.

An EU Framework 7 Project, Socionical brings together top European technology experts, psychologists and specialist in the behaviour of complex human systems and Malta’s Civil Protection Department in Malta.

Its main focus is on creating “smart” environments that will monitor how people behave in emergencies and disasters.

The research will not only model this movement to help plan for effective evacuation, but will also explore how new “Ambient Intelligent” devices such as a smart phone, can provide essential information during a disaster, that will help evacuees to escape, and help to reduce fatalities.

Another area of study will be the movement of traffic after an incident. Part of the technology being explored, will be “smart” technology in cars providing information on the state of other drivers and traffic movement following a disaster, will also be modelled.

One of the scientific principles driving the project is how the technical system reacts to human behaviour, while at the same influencing it.

It is also studying global properties and emergent phenomena that arise in “smart”-based socio-technical systems, and how group dynamics may be influenced by the provision of relevant information, and how leaders may emerge in emergency situations.

CPD director Patrick Murgo said CPD’s role in the project was quite important as it helped provide real data which scientists needed to be able to model these future systems

“ We capture video data, statistical information and we also give information about the emergency procedures from our end to the partners in the project. We get this information from a number of national mass events which happen during the year.” Such video data is in the form of crowd movements and behaviour and is used for research purposes only.

No human face is identifiable through these videos and the protection of the individual’s right to data protection is ensured, he said.

The project consortium is working with governments, emergency services, consumer groups and traffic planners, to plan what is needed for a better and safer world.