ADAPT project talks tech and legal challenges

From 26-27 August, the project consortium of the ADAPT project, which is working on the improvement of disaster-related evacuations for people with disabilities, met in Bolzano, Italy, to discuss first ideas about technical solutions as well as legal challenges.

At the first international workshop of the project, the consortium consisting of ANPAS, ASB, DKFH, WK and the University of Rome Tor Vergata came together with representatives of the local action groups from the participating municipalities.

Together with external experts, they discussed the most pressing legal concerns associated with the plans of the project. Since a data platform for the support of vulnerable people in emergencies can be problematic from a data protection perspective, they debated exceptions that exist for public authorities in their role as organiser of civil protection prevention and preparedness. Regarding the data sources, they also talked about methods of data from non-public sources and prerequisites such as opt-in procedures for potential beneficiaries of the platform.

The related matter of data security was one important point in the session outlining the data platform from a technical perspective. Besides the usage of state-of-the-art encryption and security technology, the group agreed on the basic data scheme as well as desired functionality.

At the time of the workshop, not every local action group had defined a person responsible for technical matters. Such tech contacts are in the process of being defined and, once they are defined, will work out the concept for the database in further detail in collaboration with the project’s IT service provider.

The next workshop of the ADAPT project will take place in November in the participating community of Saponara in Sicily, Italy.

ADAPT is co-financed by the European Commission, DG Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection.