Research
The globally progressing urbanization entailing the interconnection of various spheres of life and urban functionalities leads not only to increasing conveniences and quality of life, but also creates a new way of making us vulnerable to natural catastrophes, international terrorism, organized crime and the consequences of major accidents. Companies, research institutes, universities and public safety authorities of Baden-Württemberg and beyond actively work together in this cluster to develop innovative technologies and resolutions
to ensure civil security especially in urban areas by means of application-oriented research.
Next to the technological subject matters, public and societal dimensions such as the observation of the legal framework, cultural and ethical standards or the conditions for public acceptance are taken into consideration from the very beginning of the development process of new security technologies. With its thematic orientation, the cluster complies with the developments in the national and European civil security research and answers to challenges of the current security situation. The goal is to specifically address the urgent subjects of security research focusing on urban security and emerging vulnerabilities of our society.
The innovation cluster serves the intense alliance of the partners and their joint acquisition of projects with the following research priorities:1. Technologies for the protection and enhancement of the resilience of urban infrastructures
2. Technologies for action force and disaster relief workers
3. Technologies for the detection and neutralization of hazardous substances
Technologies for the protection and enhancement of the resilience of urban infrastructures
Technologies for the protection and enhancement of the resilience of urban infrastructures More and more people live and work in urban agglomerations. We are highly dependent on the infrastructures that ensure our mobility, energy and communication as well as our health care. Due to increasing global cross-linking and manifold operator models, these provision structures become more and more complex. From this, increasing vulnerability toward attacks, terroristic threats and natural catastrophes arises. The central goal of the activities in this research area is to increase the resilience against disturbances – be they caused by humans or nature –, to protect the citizens and ensure their provision. It is crucial for possible vulnerabilities to be detected early in order to develop suitable tools and measures which minimize these vulnerabilities without having a negative effect on our everyday life. These kinds of measures can work on different levels and may concern urban planning or be of technical or organizational nature. The whole range of sensitive urban areas is considered. Transport infrastructures like airports, train stations, bridges or tunnels are as much objectives of investigation as provision facilities for drinking water or energy supply, for example. To guarantee the safety of public places or buildings serving political or representative purposes is also addressed within this context.
Technologies for action force and disaster relief workers
In case of major catastrophic events, action force and disaster relief workers are the first to be on-site to get the situation under control and save lives. In doing so, they are often exposed to unratable dangers to life and limb. Threats caused by fire, extreme heat, formation of smoke and toxic substances or hardly accessible areas are very often part of the mission scenario. Bad orientation and communication conditions add to the difficulty of the task. In order to ensure the safety of the action force and to enable them to act fast and precisely, the cluster puts emphasis on this research focus. Many mission situations cannot be controlled by rescue forces without specific equip-
ment and protective clothing. Therefore, special emphasis is devoted to the development of active precautionary measures such as protective clothing or warning systems. Furthermore, effective tools and methods, which are easy to handle, are supposed to be developed in order to support a safe mission for rescue forces. The top-priority goals in crisis management are to prevent a critical situation from escalating and to contain possible consequences as far as possible. For this research focus, the early detection of potentially dangerous situations as well as the development of technologies for near-real-time comprehensive situation assessment carry great weight. This involves the development of coordinated concepts for an optimized crisis management, as for example, the evacuation of large buildings as well as the development of supporting measures for a rapid return to normality.
Technologies for the detection and neutralization of hazardous substances
In the face of security threats due to globally operating terrorism, there is an urgent need for a new and efficient detection method to discover hidden explosives or other hazardous substances as well as weapons. Even small amounts of chemical, biological or explosive substances can be highly dangerous. Due to the wide range of possible hazardous substances, various kinds of technologies have to be developed and optimized to provide reliable indications of such substances in different situations at an early stage. One of the core challenges of this research focus is the development of sensors that detect even the smallest concentration of hazardous substances
with high sensitivity and high selectivity. This is not only true for gaseous hazardous substances in the air or for dangerous substances in water, especially in drinking water, but also for solids, for example, for providing evidence in case of surface-contaminated containers. The testing of the efficiency of sensors by means of reference samples and the formulation of standards are supposed to promote the development of reliable detection systems. The reliable and fast detection of explosive substances has to be followed by a likewise reliable and safe neutralization of these threats. The variety of explosive devices and explosive materials used makes this task a precarious and complex challenge. The goal is in particular to improve the protection of police special forces or bomb disposal teams.