ELAN information system – Electronic Situation Display

Electronic Situation Display ELAN

The Chornobyl reactor disaster in 1986 highlighted the need for all decision-makers to have rapid access to comprehensive technical information in an emergency so that they can reach correct decisions with a view to protecting the population. To this end, experts from the BfS have developed a solution known as the "ELAN" information system. ELAN stands for "Elektronische Lagedarstellung für den Notfallschutz" ("Electronic Situation Display for Emergency Preparedness").

What is ELAN?

The web-based ELAN information system is an information platform that serves as a repository for knowledge from all institutions involved in emergency preparedness. It provides decision-makers at the federal and state level with quick, simultaneous and clearly structured access to all the information they need to assess the situation and to make decisions about protective measures in an emergency.

Scientific communication experts at public authorities take technical information from ELAN, which non-experts typically find incomprehensible or even misleading, and immediately translate it into information for the public.

ELAN has been in operation in Germany since 2001 and is continually modernised and adapted in line with current IT situations.

Participants

Some 70 institutions in Germany are interconnected via ELAN, including ministries and authorities at the federal and state level, as well as measuring stations.

ELAN also supports the rapid exchange of information on an international basis by linking up with the national situation centres of Switzerland, the Netherlands and France, as well as the European Commission.

Information in ELAN

In an emergency, e.g. in the event of an incident at a nuclear power plant, the theft of radioactive materials or a transportation accident involving the release of radioactivity, all relevant information is brought together in ELAN:

• What happened?
• What is the on-site situation?
• How do the relevant experts assess the situation?

Among other things, current measurement data and forecasts regarding the possible dispersion of radioactive materials are integrated from existing measurement and information systems. On this basis, the public authorities can make a prompt and nationwide decision as to whether and which measures are necessary to protect the population.