Coordinated by GMV and co-funded by the European Commission and participating organizations, the unique consortium was made up of eleven prominent aerospace companies, as well as technology experts and user communities in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain. The project was based on the premise that Galileo and EGNOS, telecommunications, cartographic, and earth-observation services are the technologies of the future in the fields of emergency management, humanitarian aid, and law enforcement. Used in combination, these technologies will bring in new applications and streamline processes, in a way that will radically change operations in these fields. HARMLESS findings demonstrate many benefits that would come from the use of satellite navigation systems in the coordinated management of emergency teams sent to disaster zones, logistic support for humanitarian aid, vehicle tracking, surveillance of suspicious persons, supervision of valuable goods, the collection of court evidence based on tracking and synchronization, and the remote control of hazardous goods. One proven example of today’s use of these technologies is the GNSS-based bait car program used by the Vancouver, Canada police to track stolen vehicles and successfully reduce the city’s number of car thefts. Based on the study’s findings, it is hoped satellite technology will soon be implemented in daily cases of emergency management, such as emergency telephone services (e-Call, E112, 911), which will include positioning information of the mobile terminal in emergency calls. The use of the technology in these applications is expected to save thousands of lives and personal property around the world.
