Earthquakes, fires, floods, acts of terrorism and other catastrophes the may occur in urban areas are an important concern for emergency services. As decision-makers become increasingly aware of the importance of preparedness, advanced technology is proving to be a critical tool for turning vast amounts of urban data into actionable insights.

This is particularly true for cities like Venice, whose geographical complexity presents specific logistical challenges. The city of Venice is composed of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. Moreover, the historical area of Venice is usually overcrowded with unprepared tourists walking in an unknown city that has 95% of its territory at flooding risk.  The intricate network of narrow lanes and canals in Venice makes traditional evacuation strategies inadequate. Protecting both residents and the millions of tourists who visit Venice yearly is a real challenge.

Innovative solutions that capture, analyse and employ the extreme data available to the city are crucial for addressing these unique challenges for crisis management. Integrating data from a wide range of sources, including urban infrastructure information, real-time citizen behavior, urban internet of things (IoT) sensors, 5G cellular information, simulated data, geographical information from Galileo and Copernicus initiatives, digital twins and AI technology, offers city administrators the opportunity to create sophisticated data-driven solutions. Using this technology to analyse and employ extreme data allows for faster response times and more effective evacuation stratgies.

The use case aims to provide a more refined and personalized approach to emergency management. This data-driven approach reinforces the ability of administration bodies to manage crisis scenarios in an efficient and fair way, ensuring citizen safety.

The PER system will promptly guide citizens to a safe area and reinforce community resilience and reduce the sense of vulnerability. It will help first responders coordinate evacuations in a more precise, efficient and rapid manner, avoiding problems of overcrowding of shelters, congestion of escape lines, conflicting warning messages etc. Overall the PER will be a game changer in the domain ,combining innovative technologies into a a unique system enhanced by the quality of the data, signals and model extraction.

 To effectively address these challenges, the PER scenario utilizes a combination of advanced technologies.

• An Urban Digital Twin (UDT) is deployed to create a dynamic and accurate virtual model of the city, integrating both historical architectural data and real-time human activity. This model is crucial for simulating and visualizing potential evacuation scenarios and optimizing routes.
• Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) systems use this data to dynamically calculate and update evacuation routes, considering factors such as current crowd densities, the location of hazards, and ongoing events.
  
• The Simulation Environment uses detailed models of Venice´s geography and infrastructure to simulate potential emergencies, allowing emergency planners to test and refine evacuation strategies under various conditions.