DESURBS

Designing Safer Urban Spaces

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The DESURBS project makes significant and novel advances with the following developments: 1) An urban space security event database that includes incidents or ‘near misses’ that have (or might have) resulted in injury or loss of life, damage to urban spaces, the auxiliary infrastructures supporting those spaces, or the surrounding natural environment 2) An integrated security and resilience (ISR) design framework that engages local stakeholders for identifying vulnerabilities and improving urban spaces with respect to security threats. 3) Comprehensive and generic supporting tools and methodologies including urban resilient design guidelines and quantitative risk and vulnerability assessment models, tools and technologies to facilitate the qualitative ISR assessment process. 4) A web-based Decision Support System Portal integrating the project’s outputs and including tailored visualization and mapping tools to help end users better understand the vulnerabilities and design possibilities. An objective rating scale for quantifying safety of different urban space designs is developed and used to show that DESURBS solutions result in urban spaces less prone for and less affected by security threats. Primary case studies with end users in Jerusalem in Israel, Nottingham in the UK and Barcelona in Spain inform the development process. The consortium consists of eight partners from five countries, and includes academic and research institutions as well as an SME for exploiting the project’s outputs among end-users and stakeholders. The SME partner is committed to maintaining, updating and hosting the DESURBS Decision Support System Portal and associated databases and tools after the lifetime of the project. An Advisory Board with members from governmental and municipal urban planning and preparedness organizations ensures that the DESURBS advances are relevant, exploitable and will have the desired impact for end users.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

EU scientists are developing state-of-the-art tools to make urban spaces less susceptible and more resilient to security risks.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

The design and redesign of secure urban spaces is often constrained by limited local knowledge and inexperience on how to deal with potential hazards and security threats. The EU-funded project 'Designing safer urban spaces' (http://www.desurbs.eu (DESURBS)) has analysed the various risks and their impact on crowded spaces, and is working to devise solutions to manage these potential risks.

Project members developed a series of tools to assist those responsible for crowded areas to plan, design, manage and maintain them in a safer way. The main tool is the DESURBS Decision Support System Portal (DSSP). The web-based interactive technology was launched to enable users to distinguish between strengths and weaknesses in urban spaces. This will allow them to recognise, minimise or remove the threats they face. It combines all of the project's technologies and results in a user-friendly, high-tech package targeting urban planners, designers and engineers.

The DSSP consists of a constantly evolving urban space security event database that includes incidents with negative or potentially negative consequences. It also comprises an integrated security resilience design and assessment framework incorporating comprehensive supporting tools to engage and support local stakeholders in recognising weaknesses and enhancing urban spaces that concern security threats.

A tailored mapping and visualisation tool has been integrated into the DSSP. This web map viewer enables users to search worldwide for security incidents such as accidents, attacks and disasters. The selection then generates cases for the given events, including photos, comments and downloadable documents.

DESURBS has introduced a series of tools just as security risks to urban areas keep intensifying. By better understanding urban vulnerabilities and design possibilities, people will be able to avoid or mitigate incidents in the future.