Background

A law passed in France on 13 August 2004 signaled the successful outcome of a process started in the early 2000’s to fundamentally modernize civil security.

Clause 1 of this law stipulates : “Civil security aims to anticipate every kind of risk, and to inform and warn the public as well as acting to protect human life, property, and the environment against the impact of accidents, disasters, and catastrophes.”

As part of this, a public sector project to assess major risks (the Dossier Départementale de Risques Majeures) represents central government’s contribution to understanding the existing and potential risks. This compendium of data is designed so information can be shared between local authorities, players on the ground and citizens, so they are better placed to anticipate risk. In 2008, 147 town councils in the Hérault region are covered by a flood risk prevention plan (the plan de prévention du risque inondation or PPRIN) and 17 are covered by a forest fire prevention plan (plan de prévention du risque incendie de forêt or (PPRIF).

Industrial sites in the Sète and Béziers basins are all prepared for an incident with an intervention plan, or a plan for specialist assistance. Protection of people, property and the environment are the priority for a new initiative to enforce regulations controlling the presence of brush and scrub, and procedures for burning scrub to clear land completely of anything inflammable (a procedure referred to as ‘décobuage’).

But however many regulations and preventive measures are put in place, nature will always have its own rhyme and reason. This means it will always be necessary to prepare for the event itself so as to plan and limit its consequences.

The State and local authorities devote considerable resources to civil security, but it is only by cultivating awareness in each and every one of us that we will succeed in limiting the consequences of major catastrophes in France and throughout Europe.

The Prefecture’s requirements

Like any Prefecture - in France, a ‘Prefecture’ is the largest, or capital, town or city in a ‘Department’ - that of the Hérault region must be capable of ‘managing’ any situation that could put people’s lives or property in danger, or which could seriously disrupt the life of the population, whatever the cause : serious natural phenomena, failed technological processes, or simply social events.

In this context, ‘managing’ means 


• forming an overview of, and evaluating, the situation
• assessing the ‘challenges’ in order to assign and coordinate the necessary resources to return as rapidly as possible to normal.

The authorities therefore needed a powerful mapping tool to be able to synthesize location-related information in real time, and monitor events as they progressed, to facilitate the taking of strategic decisions and coordinate all tactical actions on the ground from the Prefecture’s departmental operational center.

The solution offered by GeoConcept

The Hérault Préfecture uses five workstations installed with Client/Server versions of GeoConcept (with dual-screen display and projection in parallel on a separate giant screen) in the departmental command and control center (the Departmental Operations Center) a focal point in times of crisis for all the various national and regional administrative services involved : police, firefighters, the local military delegation (the Délégué Militaire Départemental), DRIRE etc. The ‘crisis hotdesk’ manned during an incident also benefits from the system’s accuracy to keep the public informed.

The tool enables preparation for crises by accessing resources and data from multiple sources (DDE, DDAF, DDASS, DRIRE, Inspection d’Académie, Météo France…). It integrates data from forecasting and planning services. GeoConcept superimposes data on an IGN base map (SCAN 25 and BD-ORTHO) showing the road infrastructure, the hydrographic network and event-linked information, the following : risk analysis maps, sensitive areas, water catchment areas, flood plains, the locations of help or refuge centers for the public, schools, medical centers (retirement homes or hospitals), campsites... meteorological data, supplied in parallel by Météo France by opening a dedicated Intranet site.

To sum up, GeoConcept helps assess risk levels taking into account both hazards and known challenges. A dedicated menu is accessible to the user via GeoConcept’s interface offering automatic geolocation, a rapid search facility on points of interest, and a list of planned public events by town. Events are created as objects on a map, and resources, and road blockades or route diversions can be mapped to show security perimeters, and indicate sensitive ‘hot-spots’ needing particular vigilance, scenario simulations and the publishing of statistics and summary reports are all possible.

GeoConcept also sets up a link to an events ledger, or ‘day book’, in which all actions undertaken by the public services as a whole are recorded daily.

A scalable solution

As a precursor to this mapping project since 2004, the Préfecture de l’Hérault specified that to maintain the system in operational order while retaining a crisis management mind-set against the backdrop of an increasingly urbanized environment, it was vital to be able to update all the maps and databases hosted on the Prefecture’s servers regularly. The GeoConcept application includes all the basic functionalities required, and being an open and interoperable system, it is easily configurable so as to be user-friendly and accessible to both trained users, and those still in the process of training.

GeoConcept has committed itself wholeheartedly to this strong partnership, and their active participation has helped bring the implementation of this project –today fully operational - to a successful conclusion.