Accelerometer
A device that measures  ground movements  in terms of magnitude and direction of an acceleration of a body or ground if fixed  (used for seismic monitoring/earthquakes).

 

API (Application Programming Interface)
A set of clearly defined methods of communication between various software components.

 

ATM (Air Traffic Management)
Air Traffic Management is an aviation term encompassing all systems that assist aircraft to depart from an aerodrome, transit airspace, and land at a destination aerodrome.

 

Big Data
Large volumes of data resulting from high velocity streams of data and variety. It cannot be processed by humans or traditional IT analysis techniques. It is often related to the cloud for storage and to statistical analyses, neuronal networks deep learning for applications. The boundary between traditional data and big data is not quantitative but relative.

 

BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight)
It applies when RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) are controlled without a visual line of sight between the operator and the RPAS.

 

Capabilities and capacities
Capacities are trained personnel and special machinery requiring specialists, thereby incorporating to some degree the concept of “assets”. These capacities make up capabilities, which are special tasks such as Urban Search and Rescue (USAR), Flood Control, Pumps, etc.

 

CAPEX (Capital Expenditures) / OPEX (Operating Expenses)
Capital Expenditures (CAPEX) and Operating Expenses (OPEX) represent two basic categories of business expenses. They differ in the nature of the expenses and in their respective treatments for tax purposes.

Capital Expenditures are the funds that a business uses to purchase major physical goods or services to expand the company’s abilities to generate profits (hardware, vehicles, new buildings).

Operating Expense results from the ongoing costs a company pays to run its basic business. In contrast to capital expenditures, operating expenses are fully tax-deductible in the year they are made.

 

C2
Command and Control (can also be found under the name C3, C3I, C4I, C4ISR, etc.) is the generic name for the IT system supporting an organisation Command and Control chain. From an IT perspective C2 is the software that enables the operators to exercise authority over a situation and provide tools to control the activities inside the situation so that the objective or the goal is reached.

In the military world, the C2 encompasses:

1. Two support functions, Surveillance and Intelligence/Information that provides situation awareness – not only in real time but also with likely evolutions
2. Three operational functions: planning (strategic/operative levels), tasking (tactical level) and Current Operations Monitoring (tactical level)

Read our blog for a detailed explanation on C2: https://www.in-prep.eu/2018/04/20/what-is-c2/

 

C3
Coordination, Command and Control: In the civilian world, as there is no unity of command between the various agencies, another ‘C’ (Coordination) describes the trans-agencies/organisations functions that are more negotiation and exchanges oriented as there is no hierarchical links between them.

From an IT perspective it includes the activities of C2 with the addition of communications between operators to achieve better coordination.

 

COP (Common Operational Picture)
The Common Operational Picture (COP) is a military concept that states that all the participants of an operation should share the same (common) vision (picture) of the situation to perform one operation (operational).

The COP is the provision of an equal picture or situational awareness to all the participants of a situation. It is built from various inputs, both human and mechanical, which combine to build this picture.

For civilian application – where the participants have different functions, the COP refers to a common situational awareness. The COP is the result of the fusion between surveillance data and Intelligence/Information data.

 

Data Adaptation Layer
A layer that facilitates interoperable communication by making use of widely accepted standards. On top of this payer, transformation of intermediate data into recognizable formats takes place if needed towards the integration of the system as a whole.

 

Data Distribution Module
A communication framework (middleware) aiming at interconnecting different tools. It enables real time interoperable communication ensuring prompt and secure delivery of information through publish-subscribe pattern.

 

Data Fusion
Data Fusion is the process of integrating multiple data sources to produce more consistent, accurate, and useful information than that provided by any individual data source

 

Decision Support Mechanism
Decision support is used whenever there is a need to support the work of an operator by Information technologies that will provide recommendations/solutions. It is used to acknowledge that the final decision remains human, whatever the quality and complexity of the analyses performed by the computers.

The term is rather vague as it may refer to a wide spectrum of services ranging from very basic assistance on line (location of places, services, etc.) to very complex reasoning technologies.

In an IT perspective it is the mechanisms or tools available to guide a human operator in reasoning the best course of action for a particular situation

 

Disaster Resilience
Disaster Resilience is the ability of individuals, communities, organisations and states to adapt to and recover from hazards, shocks or stresses without compromising long-term prospects for development.

Disaster Resilience is determined by the degree to which individuals, communities, public and private organisations are capable of organising themselves to learn from past disasters and reduce their risks to future ones, at international, regional, national and local levels

 

Drone
The informal but very widely used term “drone” refers to what is formally referred to as UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) and RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System) – an unmanned aircraft that is controlled by someone on the ground used for military or surveillance purposes. For more detail refer to https://www.jurovichsurveying.com.au/faq/difference-uav-uas

 

Early Warning System
An Early Warning System can be implemented as a chain of information communication systems and comprises sensors, event detection, decision subsystems. These systems work together to forecast and signal disturbances that adversely affect the stability of the physical world, providing time for the response system to prepare for the adverse event and to minimize its impact.

 

Embedded System
A software system that is installed in a system and is specific to the functioning of the system (e.g. the navigation system of an aircraft or the communication software in a radio). The term does not refer to the software that can be installed on a general purpose computer.  It is installed into a device that has a set of fixed, dedicated functionalities which are limited to the device’s capabilities. It is embedded as part of a complete device and often includes hardware and mechanical parts.

 

Emergency Management
Emergency Management is the organisation and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies (preparedness, response and recovery). The aim is to reduce the harmful effects of all hazards, including disasters

 

End User
In product development an end user is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ultimately use a product.

 

End-user and practitioner
While not necessarily identical, in the IN-PREP project, the people using the finished product are both: end-users of the MRPP and practitioners of crisis management.

 

ERCC (Emergency Response Coordination Centre)
Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), operating within the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department, was set up to support a coordinated and quicker response to disasters both inside and outside Europe using resources from the countries participating in the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

https://ec.europa.eu/echo/what/civil-protection/emergency-response-coordination-centre-ercc_en

 

EU Civil Protection Mechanism
EU Civil Protection Mechanism was set up to enable coordinated assistance from the participating states to victims of natural, and man-made disasters in Europe and elsewhere.

http://ec.europa.eu/echo/what/civil-protection/mechanism_en

 

Evacuation terms:

Response Phase:  
Response time refers to the time that has elapsed from the moment that an individual hears the alarm or observes incident cues (smoke, fire, earthquake, etc.) to the moment that that individual starts purposefully moving towards a safe location or exit. The response phase is also sometimes referred to as response time, pre-evacuation time or pre-movement time. Complex behaviours can take place within this phase and include notification, cognition, information and action tasks.

 

Evacuation movement phase:
Evacuation movement phase refers to the time that has elapsed from the moment an individual has completed the response phase and has started purposefully moving towards a safe location or exit to the moment in time that the desired location has been reached. In some cases the evacuation movement phase may be shorter than the response phase.

 

Evacuation phase:
The evacuation phase represents the summation of an individual’s response phase (i.e. response time) and evacuation movement phase (i.e. evacuation movement time)

 

Panic:
A common description of human behaviour in emergency conditions is that people panic, meaning that people involved in those conditions act irrationally and possible in a destructive manner much to their selves as to others.  However, this is mainly a media perpetrated myth or a description used by non-involved third party observers. In reality, studies have shown that the occurrence of panic, defined as irrational or destructive behaviour, is extremely rare. Normally, people act based on the information they currently have, the prevailing conditions, while at the same time exhibiting altruistic behaviour. It is best to avoid the use of this term.

 

Factory Integration
Integration of a system inside an industrial environment (as opposed to field integration) which is a simulated representation of the environment in which it will be finally used. The real environment is represented by simulated devices (records, simulators, etc).

 

Field Integration
Integration of a system inside the real and actual environment in which it will be used.

 

First Responder
A person with specialized training and first to arrive and provide assistance at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, natural disaster, or terrorist attack. First Responders typically include paramedics, emergency medical technicians, police officers, firefighters, rescuers and other trained members of organisations connected with this type of work.

 

Gateway
A gateway refers to a piece of networking hardware, that may contain devices such as protocol translators, impedance matching devices, rate converters, fault isolators, or signal translators as necessary to provide system interoperability.

 

GCS (Ground Control Station)
A Ground Control Station (GCS) is a land- or sea-based control centre that provides the facilities for human control of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs or drones)

 

GDPF (General Data Protection Framework)
The General Data Protection Framework (GDPF) is a regulation by which the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission intend to strengthen and unify data protection of all individuals within the European Union.

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en

 

Incident Management
Incident Management describes the activities of an organization to identify, analyse, and correct hazards to prevent a future re-occurrence.

 

Indoor Positioning System
An Indoor Positioning System is a system to locate objects or people inside a building using radio waves, magnetic fields, acoustic signals, or other sensory information collected by mobile devices.

 

Information Model
An Information Model in Software Engineering is a representation of concepts and the relationships, constraints, rules and operations to specify data semantics for a chosen domain of discourse.

 

Information System
These systems are designed in two parts. One that is public and contains information easily accessed by internet and the other that is private dealing with information that is confidential to the organization that should not be released without controlled filtering.

 

IRL (Integration Readiness Level)
Integration Readiness Level (IRL) characterizes the ease in which to integrate components that are mostly separated in daily operations.

 

Interoperability
Capability for 2 systems to work together in a joint operation and allow for exchange of information between them.

Interoperability is defined by:

• Organisational operability (the two entities can operate together as their organisations are compatible to do so),
• Procedural interoperability (the procedures of the two entities are compatible for a joint operation
• Technical interoperability (the systems are designed in such a way that they can work together in the same operation). The technical interoperability is structured in levels, from the simple physical connectivity to complex interworking.

There are several standardisation initiatives for these levels – NATO in particular is the most widely used.

In an IT perspective interoperability is a characteristic of systems whose interfaces are completely understood, to work with other products or systems, at present or future, in either implementation or access, without any restrictions. It can exist at different layers of a technological stack from hardware to software.

 

Interoperability Board
National strategic level board which provides oversight and strategic direction as part of an ongoing multi-agency governance structure for interoperability and national resilience capabilities. It provides assurance to central government that issues affecting effective interoperability and national resilience capabilities are being addressed by responder agencies effectively. (JESIP 2016)

 

Interoperable Communication Adapters
These are interfaces that sit on the edge of proposed systems which enable communications between systems.

In an IT perspective it is components based on both hardware and software implementations that permit the sharing of information and computing resources across various heterogeneous systems through the transformation of information to widely accepted protocols and standards.

 

Issue
The circumstances and details of what happened which led to a lesson being identified. (JESIP 2016)

 

Joint organisational Learning (JOL)
The framework instigated by JESIP which allow responder agencies to have a nationally consistent and coordinated way of identifying and learning interoperability and national resilience capability lessons from incidents, training, testing and exercising or other external sources  (JESIP 2016)

 

KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity (such as projects, programmes, products and other initiatives) in which it engages.

 

Lesson analysis
A formal impact assessment process of lessons identified carried out by the Joint Organisational Learning secretariat and Organisational Points of Contact. (JESIP 2016)

 

Lessons identified
A lesson identified is an issue captured by any emergency responder that negatively impacts on interoperability and/or national resilience capabilities. (JESIP 2016)

 

Lessons learned
A lesson learned is a lesson that has been resolved through the implementation of necessary change which has a positive impact on responder agencies interoperability and/or national resilience capabilities. A lesson learned means practice has been improved. (JESIP 2016)

 

Long Range Communication Solution
Wireless industrial communication devices used to provide reliable communication in large plants, over long distances or through difficult terrain.

 

Message Protocol
The rules, format and functions for exchanging messages between the components of a messaging system.

 

Meta-system
A meta-system is at a higher order, underlies, or is external to other (overlying, lower order, often more visible) systems. The understanding of the meta-system is essential to understanding how the overlying systems work. A meta-system may therefore, describe, generalise, analyse or model lower order systems. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/metasystem.html

 

 

Mixed reality
Mixed reality is a reality that contains virtual and real world elements which are fused into one interactive environment, where physical and digital objects co-exist in real time.

 

MOM (Message Oriented Middleware)
Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) is a software or hardware infrastructure that supports sending and receiving messages between distributed systems. MOM allows application modules to be distributed over heterogeneous platforms. It reduces the complexity of developing applications that span multiple operating systems and network protocols.

 

Multi-protocol Communication Management
In a combined operation with different organisations, several different systems will often co-exist with different protocols. Therefore, there is an operational need to develop gateways between the various networks and to manage these gateways between the various protocol layers. Multi-protocol Communication Management is a system developed from various protocols (both proprietary and standardised) and is defined in terms of layers from the physical to the application layer.

 

Notable practice
Notable practice is where an emergency responder has identified an issue but found a proven effective and useful way of doing something. Notable practice does not always necessitate essential change throughout a sector, but it is something which responder agencies may wish to adopt as it has had a positive impact on interoperability and/or national resilience capabilities in another area of the country. (JESIP 2016)

 

Observation
An observation is a statement that is based on something that one has seen, heard or noticed. It is something that can be analysed to help produce potential solutions. (JESIP 2016)

 

Prediction
In Disaster Management, the Prediction phase consists of a set of services that will enable the prediction of the potential disastrous events. In the prediction phase alarms and alerts are issued to relevant organisations and citizens.

The prediction phase is the foretelling of the likelihood of crises. It occurs through the continuous assessment of all groups of possible threats and real threats, and includes the analysis of developing or reported incidents.

Crisis incidents can be predicted through

• updated inputs from intelligence reports
• continuous monitoring
• analysis of convergence of related events

 

Preparedness
Preparedness is a phase in the disaster management cycle. The phase encompasses all the services intended to prepare the participants in disaster/crisis management operations so they are ready to handle a potential disaster. It involves planning, organization, training and stockpiling of supplies and equipment.

Preparedness can be practiced through simulated drills. This usually involves first responder organisations and citizens training in procedures and exercises. The drills test the effectiveness of preparedness plans and help to improve the readiness of the existing systems, procedures, organisation, logistics and equipment.

 

Prevention
Any action aimed at reducing risks or mitigating adverse consequences of a disaster for people, the environment and property, including cultural heritage.

 

QoS (Quality of Service) tweaking
This entails tuning the quality of service to provide a better output of a service.

 

Real Time
Real time entails the actions or activities which are performed in actual time. It has no or very little delay in it being performed.

Real time was previously used when computers had limited capabilities. The processing was divided into ‘real’ time (computer real time) and ‘batch’ (delayed processed for functions that did not need to be performed immediately). Nowadays, there are a few contexts where real time is used.

1. Real time in an IT sense – immediate processing/CPU for functions that do not allow delays (e.g. auto-pilot)
2. Real time/Human perception for functions where an answer is expected in a few seconds
3. Non real time when the processing is not linked to an operational urgency

 

Real World Data
Data that describes a real entity (as opposed to simulated data). It is gathered from the actual environment and is valid in the real world.

 

Reconstruction
Reconstruction of the disaster impact area and management of the disaster’s psychological, demographic, economic and political impacts.

In the disaster management cycle, the reconstruction phase consists of

• re-building the area (houses, infrastructure),
• managing the public’s expectations
• taking into account the lessons learnt during the disaster

 

Rehabilitation
In the disaster management cycle, the Rehabilitation phase consists of re-establishing vital services after the disaster, such as energy, communications, transport and logistics.

 

Resource Management
An Operational Process Model for identifying, categorizing, ordering, mobilizing, tracking, recovering and demobilizing resources, as well as a process for reimbursement of resources, as appropriate.

 

Resource Tracking
A process to record, account for, monitor, and report the status of resources.

 

Response
In the disaster management cycle, the Response phase encompasses all the actions initiated immediately on the onset of the disaster – to stop the disaster or mitigate its effects on society.

Having a dedicated crisis management plan and team allows an agency to tackle a crisis or disaster in a calm way, thereby minimizing loss of life, property or reputation. Each person in a disaster management team carries out duties assigned to her. The team swings into action the moment there is a threat of a real crisis. For instance, in the case of the threat of a tsunami, the team will

• immediately evacuate all the areas under threat
• ensure emergency services are on standby
• prepare to treat those who are injured

 

RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft System)
RPAS is a set of configurable elements consisting of a remotely piloted aircraft, its associated remote pilot station(s), the required command and control links and any other system elements as may be required at any point during flight operations.

 

Sense-making
In human-centred computing, sense making is about understanding the different layers and algorithms that make up a model so that the user knows why and how the algorithms work to produce the end result. So while situation awareness is about the knowledge that’s achieved (through knowledge of current data or predictions drawn from this data), sense making is about the process of achieving these outcomes and the barriers encountered. (Endsley 1995)

In psychology, sense making is more than situational awareness. “Sense making is a motivated continuous effort to understand the connections (which can be among people, places and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively”. However it is not just about “connecting the dots – it is also the skill that’s needed to determine which dots count in the first place and which are the false signals that should be ignored” (Klein, Moon and Hoffman 2006).

For more information, read ‘Making Sense of Sensemaking 1: Alternative Perspectives’ – Klein, Moon and Hoffman http://perigeantechnologies.com/publications/MakingSenseofSensemaking1-AlternativePerspectives.pdf

 

Scenario
A story describing a step-by-step unfolding of an event.

Crisis management systems or policies are designed, tested and evaluated, on the descriptions of conditions of a scenario.

 

Scenario – operational
A scenario describing the operation in all its dimensions.

 

Scenario – script
The script describes the content and timing of all the events in a scenario. This includes the imagined chronological course of the scenario and control measures according to time, kind and location.

 

Scenario – system
The system describes the deployment of the underlying system, its configuration, use and technologies involved for each phase of the scenario.

 

Scenario Builder
The operator (person) that writes the scenarios, or the system which generates the scenarios.

In the IN-PREP project the Scenario Builder enables the creation of training and operational preparedness scenarios, allowing the IN-PREP platform to address several “what-if” questions, leading to multiple forecast evolutions.

 

Situational Awareness
In Emergency Management ‘Situational Awareness’ (SA) cannot exist in isolation. It has a purpose. In Information Management the term Recognised Current Situation [RCS]. There are three steps in Situational Awareness & Decision Support:

 

1. Perception of elements in the current situation
2. Comprehension of current situation
3. Projection of future status

 

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission CBRNe glossary defines situational awareness as:

“The state of individual and/or collective knowledge relating to past and current events, their implications and potential future developments”. – http://opencbrne.jrc.ec.europa.eu/main

The UK JESIP glossary defines situational awareness as

“the state of individual and/or collective knowledge relating to past and current events, their implications and potential future developments. The process of building situational awareness involves perception, comprehension, evaluation and future projection; achieving a common position within groups necessitates transparency around, for example, the concepts, assumptions, language and frameworks used to build individual situational awareness”. –http://www.jesip.org.uk/glossary

In the IN-PREP project on the technical front, situational awareness describes all the elements provided to end-users to facilitate their understanding of the situation. For e.g. situational awareness in the C2 system results from the combination of surveillance and Intel/information data. During training the Mixed Reality Preparedness Platform will process the inputs and activities within the environment which will describe the reality of the situation.

 

Situational Understanding
Developing knowledge and enhancing Situational Awareness are first steps, however in emergency response, optimizing that understanding is as critical. The distinction between Situational Awareness and Situational Understanding (SU) is the level of analysis and depth of comprehension that allows judgment to be applied effectively. (Lovering 2014) http://www.jwc.nato.int/images/stories/threeswords/NOV_SITAW.pdf

Situational understanding requires a combination of insight – the ability to accurately perceive an existing situation – and foresight – the ability to anticipate how an existing situation may develop in the future. SU involves information fusion as well as model representation and inference. Commonly, heterogeneous data sources must be exploited in the fusion process: often including both hard and soft data products. Situational understanding happens after situational awareness is ‘digested’ and transformed e.g. when “threat data is used to produce threat intelligence”. (Trost 2016)

https://www.threatq.com/situational-awareness-vs-situational-understanding-intelligence-passing/

“Decision making in complex multi-variate domains such as air traffic control, ship navigation, emergency response, military command and control, and so on, often depends heavily on the situational understanding of the decision maker”.

This notion of understanding, in general is defined as the “product of applying analysis and judgment to the unit’s situation awareness to determine the relationships of the factors present, and form logical conclusions concerning threats to the mission accomplishment, opportunities for mission accomplishment, and gaps in information”.  (Chakraborty, Preece, Alzantot, Xing, Braines, Srivastava 2017) https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8009785/

Situational Awareness is the appreciation of what is happening, but not necessarily why it is happening. Judgments based on this comprehension provide understanding of the problem (foresight). This is also summarized in the above diagram from the UK’s Joint Concepts and Doctrine Centre (JCDC) Joint Doctrine Publication on Understanding (JDP-04). The distinction between Situational Awareness and Situational understanding is the level of analysis and depth of comprehension that allows judgment to be applied effectively.

Source: http://www.jwc.nato.int/images/stories/threeswords/NOV_SITAW.pdf

 

SMART
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely

 

Standardisation
Any action that pushes towards the use of the same reference or common understanding for a majority of people.

On a technical level, it is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties from a wide range of groups (firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments)

 

Standards
Standards related to disaster resilience and crisis management are developed by multiple technical committees, depending on the exact subject of the standard, and both at the global and European level. On the global level, most standards regarding disaster resilience are developed within ISO/TC 292 Security and Resilience, which consists of over 120 active experts, representing 44 countries. On the European level, CEN/TC 391 Societal and Citizen Security develops relevant standards and decides on the adoption of ISO-standards as European standards.

Standards are part of the knowledge economy that underpins European industry and society. They facilitate innovation, promote the adoption of new technologies and facilitate cross-border trade. They are also used to improve safety and performance, raise levels of efficiency, and protect consumers, workers and the environment.

http://resistand.eu/content/what-standardisation

 

System
A system is a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items that form a unified whole.

Every system is

• delineated by its spatial and temporal boundaries
• surrounded and influenced by its environment
• described by its structure and purpose
• expressed in its functioning

From an IT perspective, a system is an assembly of devices (hardware and software) that integrate to perform functionalities and provide a service to an operator.

 

System Authority
Authority in charge of the management of the system and its evolution. In a traditional procurement model, the system authority is the owner of the system.

 

TerraSAR-X
An imaging radar Earth observation satellite

 

TRL (Technology Readiness Level)
Technology Readiness Level is a scale that describes the maturity of a product from a technological perspective of a software system, hardware system or component. It has a range from 1 to 9 where 1 is the basic principle to 9 which is the fully qualified product. Although similar, there are several TRL models (US DoD and NASA for industrial production and EC model for research).

https://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/trl_demystified.html

https://www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/404585.pdf

https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2014_2015/annexes/h2020-wp1415-annex-g-trl_en.pdf

 

UAS (Unmanned Aerial System)
An aircraft and its associated elements, operated with no pilot on board.

 

Vulnerability Assessment
Vulnerability Assessment from the perspective of disaster management means assessing the threats from potential hazards to the population and infrastructure.

 

Verification Model
A model which defines the correct implementation in relation to the concept model.

 

Wireless Sensor Network
Wireless Sensor Networks rely on wireless connectivity and spontaneous formation of networks so that sensor data can be transported wirelessly.

 

 

 

 

ALOS      Advanced Land Observing Satellite

API          Application Programming Interface

ATM       Air Traffic Management

 

BGAN     Broadband Global Area Network

BVLOS   Beyond Visual Line of Sight

 

CAP         Common Alerting Protocol

C&C        Command & Control

C2            Command & Control

C3            Coordination, Command & Control

CBRN      Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear

CBRNe   Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and explosive materials

CI              Critical Infrastructure

CIWIN    Critical Infrastructure Warning Information Network

CLIO        Central Logging of Intelligence Operations System

CM          Crisis Management

COP         Common Operational Picture

CP            Civil Protection

CPM       Civil Protection Mechanism

CPO         Civil Protection Office

CSI           Critical Success Factor

 

DC            Direct current

Demos  Demonstrations

DMC       Disaster monitoring constellation

DMIS      Disaster Management Information System

DoA        Description of Action

DRM       Disaster Risk Management

DSS         Decision Support System

DTM       Digital Terrain Modelling

 

ECDC      European Centre of Disease Prevention and Control

ECH2020               European Commission Horizon 2020

EDXL       Emergency Data eXchange Language

EFSA       European Food Safety Authority

EMN       European Migration Network

EMSA     European Maritime Safety Agency

ENISA     European Network and Information Security Agency

ENVISAT Environmental Satellite

EO            Earth Observation

eOSOCC                  Electronic On-Site Operations Coordination Centre

ERCC       Emergency Response Coordination Centre

ERS          Emergency Restoration Structures

ERUs       Emergency Response Units

ETM        Enhanced Thematic Mapper

EU            European Union

 

FAIR        Findable Accessible Interoperable Reusable (Data)

FEMA     Federal Emergency Management Agency

FM           Frequency Modulation (in telecommunications and signal processing)

Frontex                  European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Border

 

GCS         Ground Control Station

GDACS  Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System

GDPR     General Data Protection Regulation

GIS           Geographic Information Systems

GOARN Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network

GPS         Global Positioning System

GSM       Global System for Mobile Communications

 

HCI          Human-Computer Interaction

H-CLOP Humanitarian common logistic operating picture

HFE          Human Factors Engineering

HFOSS    Humanitarian Relief and Humanitarian Free and Open Source System

HNS         Host Nation Support (Guidelines)

HSE          Health Service Executive (Irish public health and social care services)

HSI           Human System Interfaces

HUSAR  Heavy capability Urban Search and Rescue

 

ICT           Information and communications technology

IFRC        International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent

INSARAG               International Search and Rescue Advisory Group

IPCR        Integrated Political Crisis Response arrangements

IPR           Intellectual Property Rights

IRL           Integration Readiness Level

IS              Information Systems

ISAC        Inter-Organizational Situation Assessment Client

IT              Information Technology

 

JESIP       Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme

 

KPI           Key Performance Indicator

KRA         Key Result Area

 

LCMS     National Crisis Management System of the Netherlands

LEA          Law Enforcement Agencies

LOCC      National Operational Coordination Centre

LSS           Logistics Support System

 

MDRU   Movable and Deployable Resource Unit

MIC         Monitoring and Information Centre

MRPP    Mixed Reality Preparedness Platform (IN-PREP training platform)

MUSAR Medium capability Urban Search and Rescue

 

NASA     National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NATO     North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

NIMS      U.S. National Incident Management System

NPoCC   National Police Coordination Centre

NRF         National Response Framework

NRT         Near Real Time

 

 

OA       Open Access

OEMC    Office of Emergency Management and Communications

 

PPEW     Platform for Promotion of Early Warning

 

RASF       Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed

R&D        Research and Development

RFID        Radio Frequency Identification

RPAS      Remotely Piloted Aircraft System

RRI           Responsible Research and Innovation

RT             Real Time

RTO         Research and Technological Organisation

 

SARS       Severe acute respiratory syndrome

SATCOM                Satellite Communications

SMAT     Social Media Analysis Tools

SMSRM                  Solution Methodology of the Structured Robust Model

SoA         State of Art

SPOT       Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre

SSH          Social sciences and Humanities

SRIJ         Safety Region of IJsselland

SRMLM                  Stochastic/Robust Model for Logistics Management

SUMA    Humanitarian Supply Management System

SWE        Sensor Web Enablement

 

TBC          Transboundary Crisis

TCM        Transboundary Crisis Management

TFEU       Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

TP-DRO Transportation Problem in Disaster Response Operations

TRL          Technology Readiness Level

TSO          Tactical situation object

TSP          Travelling salesman problem

TTX          Table top exercise

 

UAB        User Advisory Board

UAS         Unmanned Aerial System

UAV        Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

UNDAC United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination

UNISDR United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction’s

USAR      Urban Search and Rescue

 

VGI          Volunteered geographic information

VOSOCC                 UN’s Virtual On-Site Operations Coordination Centre

VRP         Vehicle routing problem

VSAT      Very Small Aperture Terminal

 

WHO      World Health Organisation

 

XML        Extensible Mark-up Language

 

 

Official Glossaries used by Civil Protection Agencies

 

EU/UN/NATO Informal Inter-organisational Military Glossary of abbreviations, terms and definitions related to Conflict Prevention (CP) and Defence and related security Capacity Building (DCB)

https://www.cimic-coe.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/NATO-EU-UN-glossary-on-DCB-and-CP.pdf

 

CBRNE Glossary produced by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in all the EU languages and available at http://opencbrne.jrc.ec.europa.eu/main

 

A glossary of terms used within JESIP – the Joint Doctrine 2^nd Edition http://www.jesip.org.uk/definitions

 

The Irish Framework for Major Emergency Management provides a Glossary of Terms and Acronyms Appendix F3

http://mem.ie/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/A-Framework-For-Major-Emergency-Management-Appendices.pdf