The SCOUT project fits in a larger-scale tentative project called AROUND (Autonomous Robots for Observation of Urban Networks after Disasters) [www.ifi.auf.org/personnel/Alain.Boucher/ recherche/ifi/around/]. This project, which has yet to be formally launched and funded, has a global scope of 5 years, while the present proposal has a duration of 2 years.

The ultimate objective of AROUND is the design and implementation of a real-time decision-support system for disaster recovery in urban areas, which relies on the combination of global GISs at different scales and local automated sensing capabilities. It is mainly targeted at large Asian cities in the case of floods and other natural disasters.

This proposal focuses on the first steps of this large project:
(1) to strengthen the existing consortium and, possibly, establish new linkages and partnerships by organizing a series of events (workshops and meetings) on the subject;
(2) to design the first prototypes and the first integration plan of the involved technologies into one global architecture;
(3) to stimulate dialogue between NGOs, local policy makers, and researchers in order to precisely target the needs of the different countries involved in the project (Vietnam, China, Cambodia).