Smart City: New emergency reporting app by ENEA

The ENEA Research Center in Portici has developed an application to report urban emergencies regarding fires, accidents, vandalism, public lighting, road and water networks, safety signs and signals, waste, and general hazards in cities .

The app for smartphones and tablets will be free to download and install through a link published on the website of the Municipality of reference. In order to interact with the information system it will be necessary to register and let the app identify your location.

"The application will automatically transmit to the units in charge of solving the problem all the necessary information, such as geolocation, type of event and images, essential for a targeted intervention in terms of equipment and resources", Luigi De Rosa, the ENEA researcher who conceived and developed the prototype at the Environmental BioGeoChemistry Laboratory, explained.

When reporting the event to the intervention unit, all the information needed to deal with the  emergency is routed quickly and with adequate means as compared with current procedures, often made more complicated by delays in identifying the criticality. Once the problem is resolved, the authority in charge, through another app, notifies in real time the information system.

"The involvement of single citizens acting as "mobile sensors" allows a real-time and continuous monitoring overcoming the limitations due to possible poor economic resources and scarcity of personnel", De Rosa concluded.

Further developments will concern a system for selectively sending notices and information of public utility or regarding environmental or urban emergencies, to different citizen groups.

For more information please contact:

Luigi De Rosa, ENEA - Environmental BioGeoChemistry Laboratory, luigi.derosa@enea.it