A final version of the Emergency Response Service - A step toward a fully operational Service

Over the last three years, the SAFER consortium partners have invested a great deal of effort, time and resources to develop and continuously improve the content and delivery of the pre-operational GMES Emergency Response Service. The final version of this service is now available, and offers a legacy to future operational services. The tender for the fully funded European service has now been published, with services due to be launched in 2012.

This User Newsletter is designed to inform user communities about the improvements offered by this second version of the GMES Emergency Response Service. The new products and service improvements, as well as the clarifications to the classification of the existing products aim to offer the maximum number of options to users, in order to support the more efficient management of complex crises stemming from natural or man-made disasters.

This latest enhancement of the Emergency Response Service has been characterised by a number of developments:

1. The publication of a new "User Starter Package" (soon to be available on the ERS website)
2. The availability of 12 new products
3. The growing involvement of the user community through training and workshops

In this edition, the purpose and content of the new products are described, and the reformulation of the product taxonomy is outlined. The involvement of the service in Civil Protection exercises is presented, and opportunities for training and user engagement are highlighted in the section on upcoming events. We conclude with some examples of products delivered to users during recent activations of the Emergency Response Service.

In the next and final issue of this newsletter, which will be published in December, an overview of the SAFER project will be given, in order to mark its closure, highlight its achievements and reflect on the transition from R&D to operations.

We hope you will enjoy reading our newsletter and learning about the latest developments in the effort towards establishing operational European services for Emergency Response.

David Hello
SAFER Project Coordinator

12 new types of products can now be requested. They have been developed for specific disasters or hazards, and are supplementary to the other products provided by the service. These products were selected following the evaluation by a panel of users who were asked to express their needs at the beginning of 2011:

• Ash/SO2 content
• Burned area mapping (medium resolution)
• Active fire location
• Damage Mapping
• Evacuation plan
• Fire severity mapping
• Burned area mapping (high resolution)
• Flood hazard risk map
• Flood information system
• Rapid Landslide Mapping
• Basic European Assets Map
• SAR based reference mapping

Civil Protection exercises represent an opportunity to train the user community on the use of ERS products. This kind of exercise acclimatises end-users with the use of ERS in an operational setting. In the exercise scenario, ERS is triggered and provides added value to the users in terms of:

• Triggering procedure
• Information features received and their limitations
• Added value brought to their missions

The latest major exercise was the CARPATHEX exercise performed within the framework of the Polish presidency of the EU. The French and Italian Civil Protection authorities have also conducted regional and European exercises.

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In the coming months, several major user events are planned in order to highlight the main developments implemented since 2009 within the framework of the SAFER project and with the support of the LinkER project.

Information about three upcoming meetings can be found by clicking the following links:

• SAFER training Session - Training the operational users of the Emergency Response Service. 25th and 26th October 2011 in Aix-en-Provence
• IVth External User Advisory Committee meeting & Final GMES ERS user plenary conference: 16th to 18th November 2011 in Brussels
• GMES Emergency Response Service Lessons Learned and Training Workshop for National and EC Focal Points

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Horn of Africa

The combination of conflict and drought has exacerbated the vulnerability of people in Somalia. According to the United Nations, more than 135,000 people have fled the country since the beginning of the year. Thousands of Somalis are arriving at refugee camps every week in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia in precarious health.

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