Flood Prevention: vorteX-io and the French Fire Departments toward the Paris 2024 Olympics goal?

Wednesday 10 October 2023
Misc, vorteX-io News

For SDIS (Services Départementaux d’Incendie et de Secours: French Fire Departments) firefighters, every moment counts. Every decision, every tool and every resource can make a difference. The search for innovative and effective solutions is therefore essential to meet the complex challenges they face on a daily basis. Whether it’s a flood or a drought, having a clear vision of what’s to come can have a decisive impact on the outcome of an intervention.

That’s why vorteX-io has been working with France’s SDIS for over a year, starting with the SDIS 64 (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) and SDIS 77 (Seine-et-Marne). Discussions are also underway with SDIS 34 (Hérault), SDIS 24 (Dordogne) and SDIS 13 (Bouches-du-Rhône). Ultimately, our aim is to work withall the SDISs in France to support them in their operational response in the field and their essential mission of protecting people and property in emergency situations.

Hydrological innovation for the fire service

This nationwide collaboration is part of the WHYLD (Worldwide Hydrological Large-Scale Database) project, financially supported by the European Innovation Council, which aims to provide the first river weather service in Europe. The first stage of the project involves the deployment of 1,000 innovative vorteX-io micro-hydrological stations on rivers in France and Croatia. These new-generation sensors complement the government’s Vigicrues service, enabling the SDIS to maintain real-time surveillance of at-risk rivers in their territory, in order to anticipate the occurrence of floods.

As a reminder, users of Maelstrom®, our hydrological platform, can easily access real-time measurements (water level, surface velocity, contextual images and, soon, precipitation and flow) of rivers, as well as their historical data. They can also receive alert notifications by email, SMS and voice call when thresholds they have defined are exceeded, enabling them to adapt their intervention strategy and operational deployment in the field as quickly as possible.

While this alert notification function is invaluable for day-to-day monitoring of a river or tributary, it is crucial in the event of crises affecting large areas or even entire watersheds. It is therefore particularly interesting for a region to equip itself with a constellation of in situ sensors to monitor its entire hydrological network in real time. Implementation of the WHYLD project could therefore represent an essential building block in the overall civil protection system deployed by the French government.

Goal: Paris 2024 Olympic Games

It was with this large-scale surveillance in mind that the agreements with SDIS 64 and SDIS 77 were signed. In particular, the deployment of the vorteX-io micro-station service in Seine-et-Marne may prove relevant with regard to securing infrastructure and the population during the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. Equipping the waterways of the Paris region will enable us to anticipate floods and plan an appropriate operational response in the field.

Would you like to discuss our services and their benefits for SDIS?
Join us on October 05 and 06, 2023 at the Congrès National des Sapeurs-Pompiers de France 2023 at the MEETT in Toulouse.
(on ESA BIC Sud stand VI24 and on the Occitanie Region stand).