EPIdemiological and logistic COVID-19 model
The consortium led by Milan-based innovative SME TerrAria has been selected among the winners of one of the programs in response to the COVID-19 emergency in Europe promoted by the European Space Agency, in collaboration with the Ministry for Technological Innovation and Digitization and the support of the Italian Space Agency, launched in April 2020 during the first wave of COVID-19 contagion. At that time of great difficulty in managing the emergency, institutions promoted the program called “Space in Response to COVID-19 Outbreak” by co-funding pilot projects to support pandemic response and management through the application of innovative geospatial technologies.
| Project: EPICO 19 (EPIdemiological and logistic COVID-19 model) Project Type: ESA Contract 4000131356/20/NL/AF, European Space Agency Budget: 797’469 Euros (636’000 Euros financed by ESA) Duration: 2020 – 2021 Number and Partners involved: 3 project partners, all italians: TerrAria Srl (Innovative SME) – project leader, STUDIOMAPP (Innovative Start-Up), University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (UNIMORE) Role: Lead Partner Sito di progetto: www.epico19.eu |
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The consortium’s proposed project, named EPICO19 (an acronym for EPIdemiological and logistic COVID-19 model), started in November 2020 (with a total duration of one year) and focused on the Reggio Emilia area, in close collaboration with the Reggio Emilia Local Health Authority. The great added value of the proposed solution was the combination of information derived from the use of space technologies, including the analysis of air pollution processed by TerrAria and a mobility index derived from satellite images using STUDIOMAPP algorithms, with the expertise in environmental epidemiology and preventive medicine already used during these months for the specific study of COVID-19 by the UNIMORE Research Unit. EPICO19 is a web application designed to support technicians and decision-makers in the field of Public Health in forecasting the ongoing pandemic, in terms of cases, hospitalizations and in defining the most effective restrictive measures to contain the contagion. It is a GIS (Geographic Information System) based DSS (Decision Support System), driven by an epidemiological engine trained through Machine Learning that provides predictions on the spread of the epidemic.
IL RUOLO DI TERRARIA
TerrAria handled the IT development of the DSS by integrating the dedicated mobility engine, the engine related to meteorological and air quality modeling, and the epidemiological engine into the platform. TerrAria was also in charge of project management and key communication and dissemination aspects.
