Introduction
Jarvis Public is the Jarvis platform system conceived and designed to meet the need of local administrations (municipalities, provinces, regions) to alert the population in the event of emergencies and natural disasters.
Regulatory context
The Italian Civil Protection Code (Legislative Decree 1/2018, Art. 12), building on what Law 265 of 1999 had already established, clearly identifies who is responsible for informing the population about risk scenarios, civil protection planning and dangerous situations: the mayor. The mayor is the highest local Civil Protection authority, and rightly so. It is the institution that, more than any other, puts its face on the line and is closest to the citizens. The mayor is elected by them and is therefore a direct expression of the community they must protect and help make more resilient.
Civil Protection does not only mean intervening after major earthquakes or floods. Protecting the citizenry, the Cives, is also a matter of method, application, technology and responsibility. The mayor sits at the top of a pyramid that must apply these principles so that the population is always safeguarded and protected.
The mayor knows the priorities of their area and their citizens, because the role is a round-the-clock one. Their greatest responsibility is to plan properly the actions to be taken when Civil Protection is activated: with knowledge of the risk scenarios and of the human and material resources available, it is possible to define the set of operating procedures that ensure a prompt response.
The mayor’s first concern is undoubtedly to inform citizens, a task assigned to them by law. To be effective, this information must reach every citizen with clear messages that leave no room for interpretation. The mayor must be able to communicate frankly and directly with citizens not only during the typical phases of an emergency but also in ordinary times, because only then will they be credible and authoritative when it matters. A mayor who circulates the civil protection plan, who explains the risks in the area and how to behave during an emergency, and who follows critical situations as they develop makes a substantial contribution to the resilience of their community.
Communication and participation are the keystones of the system. Only in this way will a mayor be able to exercise, in an emergency, the responsibility the law assigns to them.
The traditional approach to alerting
The traditional approach to alerting relies on conventional media channels such as TV and radio (which, however, are only activated in major emergencies affecting entire provinces or regions) and on sirens, which were once present in practically every municipality in the country and are now often out of service because of their age and lack of maintenance. Several times in recent years this approach has proved insufficient to guarantee citizens an adequate level of information.
The modern approach to alerting
In recent years the relationship between people and the media has changed: more and more news (including news about emergencies) travels through social networks (Facebook, X, Instagram) and messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram).
The Jarvis Public solution
Jarvis Public addresses a highly diverse resident population: many elderly people who are not used to technology, and a large share of younger people for whom mobile devices (smartphones, tablets) are the main way of staying informed.
For this reason, Jarvis Public can alert the population both through “traditional” systems accessible to every section of the population (sirens, variable message signs) and through more innovative tools such as smartphone notifications, text messages and apps.
Jarvis Public provides an effective multilingual alert system both for residents and for tourists staying in the area for a limited period; the same system is also designed to disseminate information for local promotion (for example events organised by the Pro Loco and local associations, meetings, etc.). It therefore also becomes a useful tool for the tourism and social life of the area it serves.
How it works
The system is made up of several parts, at the heart of which is a cloud platform that manages all the services connected to it in real time.
The platform has two main parts: the web management portal and the app for smartphones and tablets (available for Android and iOS). Residents, as well as tourists, can download the Jarvis Public app to their smartphone and select the area or village where they live (tourists also enter the period of their stay).
Sending alerts
Alerts can be targeted very precisely, reaching only the subgroup of the population affected by a specific event rather than the whole population (residents and visitors alike). Alerts with different levels of severity can be sent to the population, or to subgroups of it:
- Information level: a notice about a situation that involves no specific risk or danger;
- All-clear level: a notice that normal conditions have been restored after a previously reported emergency;
- Watch level: an alert warning of a possible danger or emergency;
- Danger level: an alert warning of a certain danger, or of an emergency already under way.
The content of each alert can be tailored to give the population specific, precise instructions; alerts can be multilingual, making them easier to understand for people of different language groups, whether residents or tourists.
When an alert is sent, devices such as sirens, variable message signs or other warning systems can be activated at the same time.
Certified alerting
Alerts also ask citizens to confirm receipt. This lets the administration quickly check how effectively an alert has been disseminated and, as a result, put compensating measures in place for anyone who has not been reached (for example sending a second alert, activating sirens, or dispatching a civil protection team to the affected area to alert the population in person).
Emergency plans
The Municipal Civil Protection Plan can be loaded onto the platform so that, together with the alert, users are told the correct behaviour to adopt in the current alert or emergency.
Sending information notifications
The system can be used not only to send alerts but also to send information messages to residents and tourists. Notifications can be grouped by type and can contain multilingual messages and attachments.
When registering, people who download the Jarvis Public app (residents or not) choose the categories they are interested in, so that they receive only relevant notifications and are not told about initiatives that do not concern them.
User engagement
As with alerts, for information notifications users can confirm not only that they have received them but also that they intend to attend the event: valuable information for organisers, who can plan accordingly or decide to step up their promotion.
Integrations
Below are some of the integrations available within the Jarvis system.
- Jarvis Winter Services: tracking of vehicles used for winter services such as snow clearing and spreading de-icing and abrasive materials (salt and grit), with reporting of the work carried out that certifies its duration and actual delivery, documented by the vehicle’s GPS track.
- Jarvis Tracking: tracking of service vehicles, with security features such as parking and geofence checks, and monitoring of working hours and kilometres travelled. Vehicle positions are shown in real time on the map, useful both in normal operations and in emergencies to locate teams and vehicles in the field.
- Jarvis Weather: integration of data from one or more weather stations in the area, with real-time pre-alerts and alerts. Together with the Winter Services module it ensures services are delivered accurately and on time, even at night and when the state of the road surface cannot be observed directly. It is also a useful tool for Civil Protection groups, informed in real time of events such as exceptional rainfall or strong winds.
- Jarvis Environmental Monitoring: integration of data from one or more environmental monitoring systems (debris flows, unstable rocks, avalanches, areas prone to hydrogeological instability), with real-time alerts when specific events occur.
- Jarvis Automation: control of automation systems such as opening gates and switching on lights and sirens directly from the Jarvis platform.