Navigation In Case of Emergency (NICE): An Integrated NAV/COM Technology for Emergency Management

This paper has the goal to present the advancements in the design, development and test of a hybrid NAV/COM platform tailored to emergency operations. In particular, the system here discussed, named NICE - navigation in case of emergency, has been defined with the support of the alpine rescue team members of the Piemonte Region (Italy) that contributed towards the system requirements definition as well as the system operational tests. It is important to highlight that NICE is a technology created to support the management of the rescuers in the field (the mountain environment). It is a network-based positioning system exploiting the advantages of both the european geostationary navigation overlay system (EGNOS) associated to GPS and the available VHF communication infrastructure. The positioning system is based on the raw GPS measurements collected by the user terminal and transmitted to a local element by VHF radio channels (or GPRS when available). Present R&D activities are also considering the integration of NICE with the terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) communication infrastructure in use by several European civil protection agencies.