SCOVIS investigated weakly supervised learning algorithms and self-adaptation strategies for analysis of visually observable operations in an industrial context environment. SCOVIS research directly affects ease of deployment and minimises effort of operation of monitoring systems and is unique in the sense that it links object learning using low-level object descriptors and procedure learning with adaptation mechanisms and active camera network coordination. SCOVIS advocates a synergistic approach that combines largely unsupervised learning and model evolution in a bootstrapping process; it involves continuous learning from visual content in order to enrich the models and, inversely, the direct use of these models to enhance the extraction. In the SCOVIS application scenario user interaction will be significantly reduced compared to current methods. The system will be able to calculate the camera spatial relations automatically (self-configuration) for coupled, uncoupled and active cameras. The user will define a set of objects and procedures of interest during a very short supervised learning phase, while the associations with low-level descriptors will be automatically learnt. The resulting models will be significantly enhanced through online data acquisition and unsupervised learning (adaptation). The enhanced models will be able to be verified and potentially adapted through relevance feedback. The main measurable objective of SCOVIS will be to significantly improve the versatility and the performance of current monitoring systems. The resulting technology will enable the easy installation of intelligent supervision systems, which has not been possible so far, due to the prohibitively high manual effort and the inability to model complex visual processes. The produced technology will be evaluated through realistic scenarios related to industry and public infrastructure. The proposed research will be performed with absolute respect to privacy and personal data of monitored individuals.
As part of the FI-PPP programme, ENVIROFI consolidates the Future Internet requirements from the Environmental Usage Area perspective and provides technical specifications and prototypes of interoperable geospatial Environmental Enablers. These shall be deployed in the terrestrial, atmospheric and marine environments in collaboration with large stakeholder communities with the perspective of achieving sustainable socio-economic progress in Europe.
Atmospheric Condition Today, we have easy access to a great deal of information via television, radio and the World Wide Web, including pollution, pollen and meteorological data. All this data contributes to a common sense, but it is not tailored to the individual userââ¬â¢s needs. Future eEnvironment services shall aid users in tailoring information directly relevant to their individual requirements.
Marine Assets Synergies with the market and with policy needs are necessary to deliver significant value added to Europe from its vast marine resources. Enabling technology platforms are currently deployed across a range of existing marine related sectors including shipping, security and logistics, environmental monitoring and offshore energy. Next generation decision based management tools have to dissolve national borders. They shall address these developments in respect to distributed sensing, and wireless and cable comunications.
Biodiversity The UN and the EU have set a new target of halting the loss to biodiversity by the year 2020. In order to meet this goal we must merge observational data on biodiversity from all available sources while assuring high quality. Using outreach groups for data survey, we can greatly widen the base from which observational data may be gleaned. Scenarios on biodiversity occurrence illustrate the use of humans, supported by mobile devices such as smart phones as the main ââ¬Ësensorââ¬â¢ for data provision.
DESURBS developed information tools to assist spatial planning professionals and urban managers to create and maintain safer urban spaces. The scope of the project was to make improvements by contributing new methodologies to aid in planning, design and engineering of urban spaces to make them less vulnerable to security threats. DESURBS had as a primary objective with the creation of a range of databases, tools and approaches that can be re-used, alone or in combination, by urban space stakeholders to create new, safer spaces or to reinforce existing urban infrastructure to make them more secure for people and for the surrounding environment. The range of threats and hazards covered in the project included terror, industrial accidents, crowd control issues such as stampede threat, and natural hazards like earthquakes, flood, landslide and volcanoes.
The consolidative tool of the project is the DESURBS Decision Support System Portal (DSSP) developed by Dr Sabeur's project team at the university of Southampton IT Innovation Centre. The web-based interactive technology was realized to help enable users to distinguish between strengths and weaknesses in urban spaces. This will allow them to recognize, minimize or remove the threats they face. It combines a number of the projectââ¬â¢s technologies and results in a user-friendly package targeting urban planners, designers and engineers. The DSSP comprises an integrated security resilience design and assessment framework incorporating supporting tools to engage and support local stakeholders in recognizing weaknesses and enhancing urban spaces that might be subjected to security threats. The portal also contains an evolving urban space security event database that includes incidents with negative or potentially negative consequences, as well as preventive cases that illustrate current best practice.
Other DESURBS tools include modelling and computation based geotechnical strength-of-materials database incorporating failure calibration curves to optimize structural engineering materials decisions; a vulnerability curves database and visualization application for analyzing weak points in buildings and structures subjected to earthquake and blast; and an agent-based dynamic modelling tool for simulating urban catastrophe management scenarios. Additionally, a smart phone applications "MySafe" for crowd perception of safety in urban spaces, as well as two-way communication between authorities and citizens for security reporting have been developed and tested by Dr Sabeur's team. A second tailored security incidents mapping and visualisation tool has been realized in the project in collaboration with the University of Loughborough and Warwick.
One of the most important strategies in 21st Century Earth Management related science and engineering disciplines concerns the integration and implementation of intelligent solutions for sensing the Earth environment, numerically simulating the natural and anthropogenic processes involved and the automated service delivery of extracted knowledge for decision-support. In situ, airborne and space-borne Earth observations which are performed by multiple research and industrial organizations around the world are now generating a large volumes of data and information about Earth processes and eco-systems. Nevertheless, such generated Big data and information cannot be efficiently managed using traditional methods of data storage, access and processing by a large community of multi-disciplinary and collaborative decision makers; particularly those specializing in Critical Earth Management.
Therefore, there is, an urgent need for the deployment of generic knowledge bases and decision-support services in the context of an event driven service architecture. Enhancements for the on-demand availability to large user communities in accordance to their professional requirements for conducting crises as they evolve in time as need to be undertaken. Required actions to mitigate the foreseeable impacts which may occur during crises have to be further refined.
TRIDEC as an Integrated Project ââ¬â partly funded by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme ââ¬â focuses on new approaches and technologies for intelligent geo-information management in complex and critical decision-making processes. The key objective in TRIDEC is to design and implement a collaboration infrastructure of interoperable services through which the intelligent management of information and data, dynamically increasing both in terms of size and dimensionality, is critically supported. This will enable multiple decision-makers to respond efficiently using a collaborative decision-support environment.
TRIDEC will establish rapid and on-demand interoperability of inherited legacy applications and tools owned by the project consortium partners. By using collaborative computing techniques TRIDEC enhances the interoperability of the components to establish a decision-support enterprise system of services which can critically deliver timely information to decision-makers.
TRIDEC will be demonstrated in two scenarios. Both involve intelligent management of large volumes of data for critical decision-support. The first scenario concerns a large group of experts working collaboratively in crisis centres and government agencies using sensor networks. Their goal is to make critical decisions and save lives as well as infrastructural and industrial facilities in evolving tsunami crises.
The other scenario concerns a large group of consulting engineers and financial analysts from energy companies working collaboratively in sub-surface drilling operations. Their common objective is to monitor drilling operations in real-time using sensor networks, optimising drilling processes and critically detecting unusual trends of drilling systems functions. This prevents operational delays, financial losses, and environmental accidents and assures staff safety in drilling rigs.
A knowledge-based service framework is deployed for context information and intelligent information management with flexible orchestration of system resources. An adaptive framework for collaborative decision making is enabled with new functions for the support of complex business processes.
Based on a ââ¬ËWork Packageââ¬Ë organization TRIDEC will conduct fundamental research as well as component and system development. Basic research will aim at new approaches for the architecture and service integration of crisis management systems with special emphasis on robustness and fault tolerance. Complementary research will focus on new approaches for the design and intelligent retrieval of knowledge-bases comprising among others historic data, prognostic models, and rules. Together with information about the actual status of the underlying sensor systems will this enable the development of new, effective, and efficient tools for decision-support processes in critical crisis situation with evolving conditions.
INFRARISK is a three-year EU funded FP7 project to develop a stress test framework to tackle cascading impacts of natural hazards on interdependent infrastructure networks through: ââ¬Â¢Identifying rare low-frequency natural hazard events, which have the potential to have extreme impacts on critical infrastructure. ââ¬Â¢Developing a stress test structure for specific natural hazards on CI networks and a framework for linear infrastructure systems with wider extents and many nodal points (roads, highways and railroads), though it is anticipated the outputs can be applied across a variety of networks (e.g telecom and energy)/ ââ¬Â¢An integrated approach to hazard assessment considering the interdependencies of infrastructure networks, the correlated nature of natural hazards, cascading hazards and cascading effects, and spatial and temporal vulnerability. ââ¬Â¢Facilitate implementation through the development of GIS based and web based stress test algorithms for complex infrastructure networks. ââ¬Â¢Testing the framework developed through simulation of complex case studies. ââ¬Â¢Exploitation strategies aimed at disseminating the 'knowledge' and not just the results (e.g training courses to industry, academic and media parties).
The methodological core of the project is based on the establishment of an 'overarching methodology' to evaluate the risks associated with multiple infrastructure networks for various hazards with spatial and temporal correlation. Interdependency will be formalised and damage will be defined in terms of capacity decrements. This will be the basis for the development of stress tests for multi-risk scenarios and will define the general framework, providing a tool for decision making based on the outcome of the stress test. Our research team at IT innovation Centre has a leading role in the implementation strategy of the project. The main objective goal is to design and develop a strategic INFRARISK Decision Support Tool (IDST) to ensure that the INFRARISK stress tests and the harmonised risks management methodologies and analytics modules are integrated and driven by an intelligent process workflow engine. The IDST platform is currently well advanced to provide risk management of natural hazards on critical infrastructure and access to critically harmonized data and information. The ability to predict the vulnerability and state of damage of large infrastructure from the element and rare events can now be assessed. The IDST is being validated in Italy and Spain.
The dynamic capture of situational awareness concerning crowds in specific mass gathering venues and its intelligent enablement into emergency management information systems, using smart communication devices and spaces is critical for achieving rapid, timely guidance and safe evacuation of people out of dangerous areas. In eVACUATE, the intelligent fusion of sensors, geospatial and contextual information, with advanced multi-scale crowd behaviour detection and recognition, is being developed using computer vision. The structured fusion of sensing information with dynamic estimated uncertainties on behaviour predictions is advancing eVACUATE crowd dynamic models and virtual reality simulations of crowds in confined environments. Decision-makers at the command posts, first responders, front-line stewards and volunteers receive real-time situation aware information of updated evacuation strategies using robust and resilient eVACUATE information and communication infrastructure.
The eVACUATE system performance and scalability will be validated in five distinct pilot scenarios involving incidents with large crowd at various confined venues. These include: ââ¬Â¢Real Sociedad Anoeta football stadium in San Sebastian, Spain; ââ¬Â¢STX largest cruise ship in the world, St Nazaire, France; ââ¬Â¢Athens International Airport, Greece ââ¬Â¢Metro station in Bilbao, Spain.
Our eVacuate research team at IT Innovation Centre, has also performed key experiments involving visible, thermal and hyper-spectral vision camera installations at the Anoeta Stadium and Athens International Airport, Satellite experimental Terminal for the study of crowd behaviour. Scenarios on crowd behaviour were directed on volunteers in collaboration with research partners in Greece and Spain to generate vision data, which are currently under study. More recently, October 2016, my research team together with partners around Europe successfully completed a pilot at the Real Sociedad Anoeta football stadium in San Sebastian, Spain. (For information, please see: http://www.realsociedad.com/document/view/spa/0/207461/anoeta-participo-en-un-simulacro-de--evacuate-
The advancement of 24/7 surveillance systems for the security of WideZones with multiple assets at localized scales is of extreme strategic relevance to European economies, industries, authorities and Citizens. Nevertheless, the cost for large deployments and maintenance of ground sensing networks for local surveillance across these WideZones is extremely high. Hence, large areas of high economic importance, particularly those situated at Member States cross-borders may be exposed to undetected local illicit activities. These could lead to large systemic failures of the processes operating in wider zones, while economic stability, safety and security in Europe can be potentially compromised. Hence, the integration of affordable ground and airborne sensor observation technologies for the critical surveillance of large spatial areas of high economic values in Europe needs to be imminently prioritized.
Secure and interoperable observation data and information management services using open standards shall be deployed in ZONeSEC with the aim of cost-effectively reusing them in the surveillance of many other European WideZones. These services are part of an advanced Knowledge Base (KB) and primarily focused on large scale surveillance with high performance detection of localized abnormal activities and alerts. Semantically enriched domain knowledge representations shall be stored in the KB for supporting high level data fusion and reasoning with reduced uncertainties and false alerts. Surveillance professionals will securely subscribe to the scalable KB services of the ZONeSEC system of systems with customisable visualization features.
Several pilots specializing in the detection of illegal unauthorized entrances to or trespassing premises; or actions to damage to or deployment of harmful devices on installations shall be fully demonstrated. These concern Water, Oil and Transnational Gas Pipelines; Highways and Rail tracks conveyed in six European countries.
EO4wildlife research specialises in the intelligent management of Big Data processing, advanced analytics and a Knowledge Base for wildlife migratory behaviour and trends forecast. The research will lead to the development of web-enabled open services using OGC standards for sensor observation and measurements and data processing of heterogeneous geospatial observation data and uncertainties. The project brings together a large number of multidisciplinary scientists such as biologists, ecologists and ornithologists around the world to collaborate closely together while using the European Sentinel Copernicus Earth Observation more heavily and efficiently. In order to reach such important objective, an open service platform and interoperable toolbox will be designed and developed. The platform will offer high level services that can be accessed by scientists to perform their respective research and big data analytics.
Although HVDC subsea cable links have been built since the mid-1950s, liberalisation of energy markets and the construction of larger windfarms further offshore has led to a rapid increase in the number of operational HVDC connections in recent years. Throughout this long history both cable technology and convertor station technology have evolved many times; leading to longer higher power connections for energy trading and also more moderately sized links to improve security of supply to islands.
Supported by the HubNet programme , the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory has reviewed HVDC subsea cable projects commissioned since the 1950s. We have also considered projects currently in construction or planning phases, and more speculative future connections. Our work has reviewed the use of sea returns as an enabler to simpler cheaper subsea cable projects. Sea returns have been used since the earliest links were commissioned and are a particularly attractive solution for long distance connections. Our work has focussed on the evidence for any potential environmental impact from sea returns.
The following tables are correct to the best of our knowledge as of the end of 2016: we acknowledge the previous work of David Balloch (EnviroGulf Consulting). The tables may be copied and used for educational/non-profit purposes, and referenced as ââ¬ÅTDHVL HubNet Review of Sea Returns (2016)ââ¬?. The information is presented in the following form:
Papers:
Summary on Grant Application Form More than two thirds of the worlds population will be living in cities by 2050, which made sustainable cities a key theme at the Rio+20 Summit. Over 40% of the UK population live their working lives carrying out knowledge work in offices - enclosed spaces in the built environment. Over 40% of the UK's GDP is driven by the knowledge work carried out in these buildings. While these buildings must meet basic environmental and safety standards, building codes are primarily defined around the performance of the physical infrastructure rather than capturing the performance of a person in a building in a city. Indeed, the energy agenda has recently focused on making these work environments as air tight and thus as energy efficient as possible. But what if this energy efficiency is costing our wellbeing, and thus our performance and capacity to contribute to environmental, economic and social sustainability? We are all familiar with working in buildings that are overhot, stuffy and have seemingly no air flow, and how our performance seems to suffer as a result. Yet such environments may be well within building specifications for environmental quality. There is a clear need to be able to quantify the impact of indoor air on human performance and determine what is optimal for quality performance.
We hypothesize that poor indoor environments are the result of approaching building performance on the basis of (1) what is easy to measure (e.g. energy/carbon) and (2) without properly considering effects of the environment on human cognitive performance. Poor design may have such a critical impact on the creativity and innovation required for knowledge work that we need a radical shift in design focus. That radical reconsideration may show that even small changes not just to design, but to the way information about both the building and the person is presented, may significantly improve performance.
The goals of the Refresh project are to put the human at the centre of building performance and to develop new measures and models that better capture the complexity of these interactions. We plan to measure the *dynamic* changes in and around the local environment on human performance in that environment. These measures will give us ways to create new models of building environments that in turn will be available to help inform policy for building quality that takes human wellbeing in these environments into account. These models will also help us to design new kinds of environmental interaction tools. For instance, much current attention is focused on smart meters to encourage us to change our behaviour around energy use. This is a very one-way view of our interaction with a buiding; it's all building to human. What if the building, however, knew something about our state and tasks? Would we be able to present a co-interaction meter that might suggest opening a window or going for a walk to get some air in order to complete a task when we're apparently becoming sluggish?
Our proposal brings together a novel mix of ICT and engineering sciences. As such, our results will affect a range of disciplines. Overall, our research explicitly aims to develop a methodology for assessing indoor climate for human performance as the outdoor microclimate is altered due to a changing neighbourhood. We will discover how dynamic changes may enable us to create not just a sustainable indoor environment, but an indoor environment which sustains. We will enhance the present energy-dominated portfolio of built environment research by taking a holistic view and integrating explicit feedbacks between urban microclimate, ventilation and human performance. Our approach will provide guidance on how to meet energy efficiency targets without compromising productivity.