Feed — Safeplan

With over 50 000 inhabitants, Bodø is one of the largest cities in Northern Norway. In 2027, the airport will be moved further out from the city center, leaving behind an area the size of 800 football fields to be developed into an environmentally sustainable, and technologically ”smart” new neighborhood. With that in mind, the city is currently developing the project “Smart Bodø”, with safety, smarter data solutions, and ease of cross departmental communication at its core. The Fire Department is among the first to develop and utilize this technology.

In the solution we created, Safeplan; emergency services can filter critical information, and select or customise datasets to best serve their specific needs. These same datasets can be utilised across the Smartsky platform (read more), enabling other applications – serving other departments within the municipality – to effectively develop and deploy technological solutions that make a real difference in people's lives.

When a fire is reported, the firemen have less than 10 minutes to reach the incident. The time spent in the fire truck is a crucial period to gather as much relevant information about the situation as possible – yet this time is often lost in complicated systems, Powerpoints and static maps in various formats. How can those precious minutes be put to better use in gathering a coherent, informed overview, rather than wasted navigating different systems?

Our task was to reduce the time firefighters and communications coordinators spent gathering critical information in a crisis situation. Where are the water supplies located? How many occupants inhabit the building? What are the latest floorplans? Are there any inflammables or dangerous material nearby?

To achieve this, we created a platform that gathers all the different systems and databases used by firefighters and enables them to communicate with one another. With Safeplan, firefighters can access all the information they need using different map views, such as 2D and 3D maps, and can access sensitive information, documents, and PowerPoints in the relevant context.

The process was iterative, including weekly touchdowns with the fire department to test and validate any proposed feature or functionality, and honor and encourage their participation. Since this platform is built to save lives, it was crucial for it to be bulletproof and tested in multiple scenarios.

Safeplan represents the first of many projects that will be developed as part of the ambitious Bodø Smart City initiative, which seeks to transform the city into a model of sustainability and innovation.