X24Europe exercise – two seismic events and tsunami in Adriatic Sea

X24 Europe is a virtual online exercise that demonstrates the use of social media, crowdsourcing, and collaboration tools in an innovative, cost-effective, cloud-computing environment. It fosters the information-flow and coordination of activities by the international crisis-response community during the first 180 days of a natural disaster.

The scenario involves two seismic-events and a tsunami in the Adriatic Sea that cause significant damage to key-resources and critical infrastructure within Southern Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Macedonia.

The X24 EUR exercise scenario is a complex simulated seismic event that generates a tsunami in the Adriatic with corresponding damage to essential resources and critical infrastructure in the Balkans.

Scenario Part I: Tsunami in the Adriatic Sea

A simulated magnitude Mw 7.3 thrust-fault earthquake occurring 22 kilometers west-southwest of Budva, Montenegro. The earthquake rupture migrates north and south along the Montenegro Fault. Energy released by the quake also migrates eastward through Montenegro and Kosovo. Key resources and critical infrastructure in Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia , and western Kosovo are impacted by the quake. A tsunami will be generated by this quake. The tsunami will cause severe flooding, damages, and deaths to the inhabitants of cities, villages, ports and harbors from Ploče, Croatia in the north to Doni Stoj, Montenegro.

Scenario Phase II- Earthquake Damage to the Balkans

On land, damage from the Mw 7.0 earthquake will occur near Bitoli, Macedonia. This second earthquake and follow-on after shocks of decreasing magnitude will impact key resources and critical infrastructure in Kosovo, and Macedonia. The impacts of these events will be exacerbated by construction techniques not designed to withstand seismic events. Post-earthquake fires, building collapses, landslides, and dam breaks will create additional challenges for exercise participants.

X24 Europe is hosted by San Diego State University's Immersive Visualization Center (SDSU VizCenter) in California USA, with support from the German Red Cross, National Institute for Urban Search and Rescue, Humanity Road, Crisis Commons, U.S. European Command, and many other public/private partners.

Exercise 24 Europe (X24 EUR) is a robust virtual online exercise scheduled for March 2011 that will demonstrate an effective use of social media, crowdsourcing and collaboration tools in an innovative and cost-effective cloud computing environment. The exercise promotes an exchange of actionable real-time information and building partner organizations’ awareness regarding response to simulated humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) crises in the European theater.  EUCOM is hosting X24 Europe, the next evolution of X24 scheduled for 28th-31th March 2011.

The X24 Europe scenario is complex with a simulated seismic event that generates a tsunami in the Adriatic and damage to key resources and critical infrastructure in the Balkans.  The focus of X24 Europe will be in the utilization of “no cost” off-the-shelf online tools to gather, coordinate, and provide assistance to help thousands of victims and help save lives.

The communication, coordination, and logistics challenges to develop an effective damage-risk-needs assessment, deliver aid to displaced populations requiring survival infrastructures, and facilitate evacuations will be hindered by the terrain, damage to sea port facilities, damage to roadways and bridges, loss of bulk power, inconsistent to non-existent bandwidth, pre-existing social, economic, and political challenges in the region.

X24 Europe will also simulate key resource and critical infrastructure destruction sympathetic to the scenario in and around Stuttgart, Germany to facilitate a collaborative exploration of innovative technologies.