AIFER - Artificial Intelligence for the Analysis and Fusion of Internet and Remote Sensing Data in Disaster Management

The frequency and intensity of natural disasters are constantly increasing and pose increasing challenges for authorities and organizations in crisis management, partiularly with regard to the availability and use of near-real-time and large-scale information for situation assessment. In addition, there are currently no solutions to automatically evaluate heterogeneous mass data, such as earth observation and Internet data, and to fuse them into a holistic and dynamically updated picture of the situation.

AIFER researches Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to automatically extract and intelligently fuse information from satellite, aerial and drone data as well as from geo-social media and georeferenced news.

The aim of the AIFER project is the provision of targeted, dynamic decision support of the crisis management organisations. Information from earth observation and internet data is analysed and fuse through AI algorithms in order to support the protection and rescue of people as well as the protection of critical infrastructures. Consumers such as the Red Cross, the Technisches Hilfswerk (THW) or the Johanniter formulate their requirements, discuss them with researchers to then involve them directly in technical research. A comprehensive consideration of ethical, legal and sociological aspects is at the center of the project. Validation and the ability to be integrated into existing operational processes are tested in a practical way together with end users. AIFER primarily addresses the flood disaster scenario, whereby the transferability to other disaster scenarios is shown.

The German-Austrian joint project funded by FFG (AUT) and BMBF (GER) started in February 2021. It is coordinated by the University of Salzburg and the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

Austrian project partners: University of Salzburg, Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS (coordinator), Johanniter Austria, Salzburg Red Cross, IFES, Spatial Services GmbHH

German project partners: German Aerospace Center (DLR) (coordinator), Disy Informationssysteme GmbH, Bavarian Red Cross, Technisches Hilfswerk, University of Kassel

Project website: https://geosocial.zgis.at/aifer

Contact: Assoz.-Prof. Dr. Bernd Resch