SPIRIT

Safety and Protection of built Infrastructure to Resist Integral Threats

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Terrorist attacks by bombing or CBR-agents are threats with a low probability but with disastrous consequences. There is strong need to protect people, the societal community and critical infrastructures and utilities against being damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism. Solutions have to be derived to realize sufficient resilience of the urban infrastructure for rare occasions with minimum effect on normality. Hitherto, normal regulations and building guidelines do not take into account the CBRE threat. Fortunately, the required specialist knowledge is available on explosion dynamics, response of structures, dispersions of toxic agents and the injuries. This knowledge should be explored to derive the required solutions. Therefore, the SPIRIT Consortium was formed to bring the required expertise together, make these commonly available and to find solutions that can be integrated into normal life and planning and building procedures. Within SPIRIT a terrorist attack with the whole scope of CBRE-threat is addressed. The main outcome of the project is an integrated approach to counter CBRE-threats, including proposed guidelines for a EU Regulatory Framework. With this approach, government, end users of buildings and designers can define and achieve a desired level of protection. The SPIRIT contribution to built infrastructure protection will be: - A methodology to quantify the vulnerability of built infra in damage, number of injuries and loss of functionality and services; - A guidance tool to assess the vulnerability and define efficient and effective countermeasures to achieve a required protection level; - Draft guidelines to enable safety based engineering and the incorporation of CBRE protection; - A suite of ready to use CBRE countermeasure products. The overall goal of the SPIRIT project is to contribute to people safety and increase the resilience of built infrastructure against a terrorist attack.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

The consequences of terrorist acts on people, buildings and related infrastructure can be devastating. An EU initiative helped to provide state-of-the-art tools to mitigate the effects of terrorist attacks.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

There is a real need to protect government structures, malls, and train and subway stations from chemical, biological, radiological and explosive (CBRE) threats. However, existing technology and know-how do not sufficiently counteract fatalities and injuries, damage to buildings, and the loss of capacity and services.

Thanks to the EU-funded 'Safety and protection of built infrastructure to resist integral threats' (http://www.infrastructure-protection.org (SPIRIT)) project, researchers developed tools to reduce damage, destruction and disruption to large new and existing buildings.

A risk assessment was carried out to demonstrate how susceptible a building is to attack. This led to tools for designers and builders to measure and categorise vulnerability, as well as to identify efficient and cost-effective mitigation strategies.

The partners compiled an extensive database of CBRE protective security and safety products like resistant window systems, a retrofit system for walls, explosion-resistant columns, and detection and filtration systems for use by the European Commission, governments and related stakeholders. The database includes product effectiveness, cost and improvement.

All project outcomes were integrated into a comprehensive, software-based risk assessment tool developed by the researchers. This tool first defines the dimension, layout and structural components of a multi-storey building, followed by the CBRE scenario. The data enables users to estimate the risks and aftermath of CBRE attacks on a building.

The SPIRIT tool provides risk measures for structural damage, casualties and economic loss. This data can be used for such countermeasures as structural enhancements, evacuation and air quality management.

SPIRIT has designed solutions to keep people who occupy large modern buildings as safe as possible. By introducing safety-based engineering and CBRE protection for public or private infrastructure, the project outcomes are slated to revolutionise building security.