Emergency response is a priority duty of governments, as they are responsible for ensuring the safety and well-being of citizens in any crisis. A rapid and effective response can be the difference between life and death. It can change the result of the outcome of an emergency.
The task of public safety is enormously complex as it represents a big challenge for all levels of government. Due to the pandemic, we have experienced how unprepared we are for emergency responses to catastrophic natural events or human-provoked situations.
The truth is that there have been decades of insufficient guidelines, underinvestment, and antiquated technology utilization, resulting in slow and vulnerable responses. Governments must ensure that the best procedures, techniques, and technologies are used to provide the best possible support.
The baseline for a new action program, new procedures, better training as well as better utilization of resources is to manage as much information as possible. The Internet of Everything (IoE) can help to analyze and develop new and better guidelines for emergency response. For it processes as much information as possible and implements faster and easier procedures with the benefit of communicating machines and personnel to act effectively in any situation.
The Internet of Everything (IoE) is the intelligent interconnection of physical devices, people, processes, and data that allows a wide range of solutions, especially for real-time applications. The data generated from this process will be a response system indicating when something is happening; and also a prediction tool by analyzing the data to suggest better and faster responses, even before the event occurs.
The issues are enormously complex and represent a big challenge for all levels of government. Current events have proved the limitations in the existing capacity for effective communication among all the first responders' teams. This requires addressing some questions: who needs to communicate what (voice or data)?; with whom?; when?; and for what purpose?
Typically, in an event such as a freeway accident, the first responders who need to communicate may be limited to the ones in a single jurisdiction or some adjacent jurisdictions. However, in a more widespread event such as a flood, adequate communication among all the first responders' disciplines and the rest of the emergency services is considerably challenging because of insufficient infrastructure and outdated technology.
The principal challenges for the government are the following:
Climate change and other factors are increasing natural disasters, adding difficulty to the government's management of emergency responses.
The lack of updated communication systems leads to slow response timing and poor coordination between the first responders' teams and the command centers. As well it causes deficient deployment of resources.
A lack of real-time data on teams' tasks and locations has resulted in insufficient deployment and a risk to emergency responders' safety.
The interaction between first responders and medical teams is often delayed, generating slow response timing and insufficient coordination due to the deficient deployment of resources.
Outdated infrastructure damages the functioning of emergency response programs; old technology and lack of equipment make it hard to improve procedures and adequately use their resources.
These challenges show the need for innovative solutions that can help improve the government's management of emergency response and safety for the teams. Implementation of the Internet of Everything is the best solution to address these challenges and to be able to provide the best assistance and services to citizens in a faster and more effective way.
The most vital purpose of emergency response is to save lives and contain the damage as much as possible. Therefore, for governments to prepare for effective emergency management, they need to elaborate procedures allowing prevention and immediate coordinated action among all the institutions involved.
Governments must ensure the availability of technology and the data systems necessary to carry out critical functions. A priority on real-time monitoring infrastructure is needed, as well as embracing predictive and proactive thinking. Implementing this enormous and fundamental duty with the Internet of Everything is essential to improve emergency response.
This type of technology guarantees the security of the citizens beyond the benefits of connectivity. The best option is a decentralized system such as our Eden system.
Smart solutions in emergency response can bring multiple benefits, including:
Emergency events require coordinated planning and response from first responder's disciplines, jurisdictions, levels of government (local, state, and federal), and nongovernmental institutions. Collecting a large amount of data will help make deep analysis possible and provide more suitable solutions.
Ensuring the application of innovative technologies and enough infrastructure will optimize the deployment of resources and staff for more efficient response and overall performance.
People, especially in poor or distant communities, need more and better resources to communicate easily with emergency responders. This improves coverage and continuous real-time communication, which will deliver the best support to citizens for their safety, reassurance, and the deployment of resources.
Real-time monitoring of first responders' teams helps ensure their safety, a good performance for early warning of potential emergencies, and faster response in active danger. In addition, real-time patient monitoring and improvement of communication with the hospitals or the rest of the intervening teams can improve patient safety and quick intervention.
Optimizing the infrastructure with innovative technologies enables cost savings by allowing a complete analysis for better deployment of the resources and use of the new tech tools. To facilitate and improve overall efficiency in the work and timing of the first responders.
IoE implementation in government will provide improvements for citizens and first responders.
Planning is key; a vague idea of the situation can make many things go wrong. Thus, having an implementation of sensors, devices (such as cameras, phones, panic buttons, etc.), and improved communication systems can resolve the current issues, as well as prepares the infrastructure for the long term to be able to update systems and procedures every time is needed.
A decentralized system will provide the safest way to generate, process, and store data in real-time. Such vital and complex duties, like emergency responses, require high security and capacity for consistent performance, which can be accomplished with a system that allows each device to act as a data collector and processing node, and the ability to communicate directly with the other devices in the network. This allows for real-time data collection and processing without needing a "cloud."
A decentralized system offers benefits such as the following:
Because of the decentralized characteristics, it makes it possible to add new nodes or devices easily, allowing the infrastructure to grow over time without disrupting general functionality and safety.
In a decentralized system, all users have an exact copy of the data making it difficult to hack the network because there is no central server to attack. The users also have shared authority, enabling equity for control and making it easier to handle privacy, which is especially useful for zero-trust environments.
It eliminates the necessity of sending all data back and forth (as in a centralized system), allowing traffic reduction, less use of bandwidth, and causing a reduction in carbon footprint. Also, it permits the shared use of resources, saving energy, costs, etc.
Every node is used as a processor and storage, making the system less expensive since it does not require a central server (which is costly to maintain). Also, the resources are all distributed among all the nodes connected, allowing saving in energy and the rest of resources, reducing costs in the short and long term.
Our Eden System is designed to empower a transition to innovative and sustainable technology by offering a virtual, decentralized, safe, and scalable system for developing all types of smart solutions.
If you would like to join us, please apply here to our Planet Partner Program. We will be happy to hear from you.
