Digitalization in Bavaria's Fire Departments

As part of his master's thesis in engineering and management, Florian Weglöhner investigated the current state of digitalization in Bavaria's fire departments. In particular, the potential of the technology trends IoT, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, AR&VR, Big Data and Cloud Computing was examined.

In order to work out the specific requirements of the fire departments, a sample organizational form was first developed based on the mandatory tasks. The subsequent analysis of the degree of digitization was based on a literature review and a survey of Bavarian fire departments.

Overall, it can be seen that the level of digitization is currently low and that the potential for digitization is far from being fully exploited. Among the technology trends considered, great potential was identified in the areas of cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence. The topics of IoT, AR&VR and blockchain are less relevant for fire departments.

Based on the results of this work, digitization concepts can be created for Bavarian fire departments and considerations can be made for uniform specifications, projects and supraregional concepts by the state government. Likewise, technological future fields have been identified in which investments should be made. Finally, the results of this work can help to centralize and further professionalize the fire department system.