Making the system of crisis management and civil protection functional was a key topic of the closing project event of CRISPRO on June 8th in Savona, Italy. The event was hosted by the the Italian CRISPRO Project CIMA Foundation. The closing event gathered actors from two municipalities from Slovakia, two NGOs from Italy and Slovakia, one network of municipalities from Macedonia and Serbia, civil protection students from Genoa University, lecturers of crisis management from Ostrava and Ankara Universities, firefighters and civil protection units from Finland, the Czech Republic and France and a representative of the Migration Office of Slovakia.
Key recommendations:
Make procedures reflect the needs of the evolving crisis management and civil protection issues;
Focus on building up multiple strategic thinking skills;
Make the systems work for the emergency;
Rely on experienced staff by facilitating the collaboration between the actors of the civil protection and disaster management community across disciplines;
Decrease restrictive aspects of the legal frameworks;
Enable actors to develop further and share their knowledge;
Invest and enable better planning and mitigation;
Enhance the compatibility and complementarity of actors;
Promote better visibility and accessibility of prevention and preparedness activities;
Make the scientific knowledge easily accessible and operational to respond to the needs of different stakeholders.
Political-strategic level conclusions are as follows:
DRR and risk mitigation assessment require local and regional cross-border levels to run effective inter-operable communications (IRC) internally and externally.
Internally, the situational picture should be built among stakeholders and shared.
Support the situational awareness based on greater scientific knowledge and the use of science in intervention, preparedness and recovery is the main goal of future developments.
Active communication is essential to boost civil preparedness and performance during multi-hazard scenarios.
As part of the last TTX (fast track to decision-making format) experts and strategic managers from Slovakia, Macedonia, Turkey, Serbia, Czech Republic, France and Italy, were exercising (June 7th, 2022) how to manage disaster #riskscenarios in shocking situations.
The exercise involves a #forestfire scenario that has cascaded a series of disasters, which must be managed by the disaster risk managers to ensure the safety of the territory and citizens. The participants worked to define how to manage a disaster, to identify indicators of assessment of risk components, vulnerability, preparedness, capacity and recovery.
Clarity, simplicity, accuracy and estimation of the event are some of the key features. The foundations have been laid for the continuation of this fundamental work and the consolidation of a strong partnership to support local and national institutions in dealing with risk situations and following standardized protocols.
Some people believe that disasters are acts of God and, as such, considered unavoidable. Therefore focusing on the emergency response and relief was essential for politicians. Yet more and more people recognise disasters as failures of unsustainable development. However, the CRISPRO „believers“ put on first place knowledge redressed in applicable measures and operational activities. Also, we create the social, economic and political conditions leading to disasters.
Individuals, communities and governments increase the disaster risk by:
degradation of the environment due to fast-growing, mass construction and urbanisation,
overpopulation urban centres,
pushing poor people to hazard-prone areas,
unequal access and lack of control over resources,
allowing constructions on unsafe and substandard houses and building,
building in a high-risk areas.
The CRISPRO followers understand the risks have led to greater management approaches:
identifying potential hazards,
determining the probability of occurrence,
estimating the impact on communities (people affected/vulnerable groups affected and counting on the needs of the affected groups),
promoting practices for reducing the vulnerability,
planning measures and taking actions to reduce the risk,
creating awareness of how to implement the measures,
increasing preparedness and abilities to increase the professional reaction of first responders and rescuers,
investing in technologies of anticipating, mitigating and saving lives,
providing opportunities for sharing of experience.
What disaster risk reduction has to take place on the local level
The degree of economic losses and damage to buildings and infrastructure determine various levels of exposure and vulnerability of the population, infrastructure, facilities on the local level.
Risk assessment answers the fundamental question.
What would happen if a hazard event occurred in my area
Analyse and evaluate potential hazards, or analyse your environment and learn what type of potential hazards are in your community,
How these hazards threaten /endanger any community/local disruption/casualties/damage losses
Results of risk assessment: enable action and form the foundation for planning and implementing DRR measures
Review the technical features of hazards – location, intensity, frequency and probability
Dimensions have a very political-driven foundation cause they refer to physical, social, economic and environmental vulnerability fo the territory governed by the decision-makers
Taking into particular account the coping capacities and capabilities pertinent to the defined risk scenario
It shall be an integral and regular element of the planning process, local stakeholders.
Identify all local stakeholders that put hands intent of a disaster, hazard-prone events, extraordinary incidents or accidents.
The European H2020 project STRATEGY (Facilitating EU pre-standardization process through streamlining and validating interoperability in systems and procedures involved in the crisis management cycle)seeks to promote pre-standardization of systems and procedures related to Crisis Management by streamlining, testing and validating standards, guidelines and recommendations; focusing on interoperability aspects according to the operational needs of practitioners. STRATEGY focuses on eight thematic streams in crisis management:
Search and rescue
Critical infrastructure protection
Response planning
Command and control
Early warning and Rapid damage assessment
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosive threats (CBRN-E)
Training
Terminology/Symbology
Please take note of the following opportunity to be part of this ongoing pre-standardization effort in the EU.
STRATEGY project invites all interested stakeholders to attend the upcoming kick off meetings of the specificCEN/CENELEC workshopstocontribute to the drafting of the CEN Workshop Agreements (CWA)listed below:
This process will offer a unique collaboration opportunity for interested parties toengage in a constructive dialogue with crisis management experts, standardization bodies, industry and research representatives, technology providers, first responders and end-users.
All interested stakeholders are kindly invited to declare their willingness to participate in one or several of the aforementioned Workshops using the respectiveregistration formand to visit the dedicatedproject web page, as well asCEN News page, that will be continuously updated with announcements of additional workshops.
The European H2020 project STRATEGY (Facilitating EU pre-standardization process through streamlining and validating interoperability in systems and procedures involved in the crisis management cycle)seeks to promote pre-standardization of systems and procedures related to Crisis Management by streamlining, testing and validating standards, guidelines and recommendations; focusing on interoperability aspects according to the operational needs of practitioners. STRATEGY focuses on eight thematic streams in crisis management:
Search and rescue
Critical infrastructure protection
Response planning
Command and control
Early warning and Rapid damage assessment
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and high-yield Explosive threats (CBRN-E)
Training
Terminology/Symbology
Please take note of the following opportunity to be part of this ongoing pre-standardization effort in the EU.
STRATEGY project invites all interested stakeholders to attend the upcoming kick off meetings of the specificCEN/CENELEC workshopstocontribute to the drafting of the CEN Workshop Agreements (CWA)listed below:
This process will offer a unique collaboration opportunity for interested parties toengage in a constructive dialogue with crisis management experts, standardization bodies, industry and research representatives, technology providers, first responders and end-users.
All interested stakeholders are kindly invited to declare their willingness to participate in one or several of the aforementioned Workshops using the respectiveregistration formand to visit the dedicatedproject web page, as well asCEN News page, that will be continuously updated with announcements of additional workshops.
The Crisis Management Innovation Network Europe (CMINE) is a thriving community of more than a thousand Disaster Resilience experts from every walk of life. Academics, practitioners, policy-makers and industrial leaders, all with one common purpose – creating successful and robust innovation to improve the security of our societies.
Created by H2020 with the support of the key EU agencies and directorates, CMINE is a non-profit platform linking projects and providing a common space for developing ideas as well as sharing basic resources to help avoid every project creating its own.
Many successful Projects are using it as an additional communication and dissemination tool and to help them link with like-minded teams with overlapping interests. A dedicated CBRNe group has been set up for colleagues to interact, discuss and post information about events and other areas of interest.
Apply ideas, creative skills, and programming expertise in order to create a prototype model for an application which will strengthen the preparedness of communities potentially affected by natural disasters. The team of HEUREKA partner project is interested in models which take in account local environment and needs.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE:
#HackHEUREKA is open to participants from all age groups and nationalities. However, we will be particularly happy to receive registrations from high-school and Universitystudents.
For more information about the context and the specific requirements of #HackHEUREKA please visit
Apply ideas, creative skills, and programming expertise in order to create a prototype model for an application which will strengthen the preparedness of communities potentially affected by natural disasters. The team of HEUREKA partner project is interested in models which take in account local environment and needs.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE:
#HackHEUREKA is open to participants from all age groups and nationalities. However, we will be particularly happy to receive registrations from high-school and Universitystudents.
For more information about the context and the specific requirements of #HackHEUREKA please visit
The critical or strategic infrastructure, supply chains, cities services are at any time endangered and vulnerable to any extraordinary event, demonstrating the case studies of the CRISPRO benchmarking exercise. Even a chemical, transport or fire incident could easily spread and contract any part of the civilian infrastructure. Nowadays, the EU security strategy emphasises the need for critical infrastructure protection (CIP).
Furthermore, extreme wind, temperature, snow, rain, landslides, floods, storms and tornado events, especially those with cross-border impacts, can be subject to political repercussions. In general, the personnel is not adequately equipped or prepared to effectively respond in such crises, which require an abrupt response and multi-sectoral control measures. In such situations, ad-hoc arrangements are commonly adopted, resulting in operational problems.
City smartening also increases interdependency and cost-effectiveness. Systems use one infrastructure/utility network as a provision or firmware for multiple services. It brings more troubles in unsecured by an extraordinary natural, social or cyber event.
CRISPRO collected examples demonstrate that the performance of emergency services is subject to comprehensive prevention and preparedness based on perceived expectations and incomplete evidence. If we don’t implement disaster response knowledge in developing our capacity for major operations, the lessons learned will be little more than a slogan.
CRISPRO benchmarks some essential measures following the preparation, reaction and recovery disaster management cycle.
regular monitoring of the resilience of most vulnerable areas, invest in the classification of vulnerability and invest in strengthening of monitoring and analytical source,
develop a specific na-tech and multi-hazards monitoring methods and intervention contingency planning, manuals and SOP for reaction to minimise the cascading effect of na-tech,
invest in the identification of all possible side effects,
prepare various types of intervention technologies and capacities, involve more multi-sectoral knowledge and expertise,
analyse regularly similar incidents in other countries, learn from previous historical incidents, learn from gaps and failure in reaction, immediately change SOP based on the latest gaps,
modernise early warning systems and promote live monitoring contingency planning
evaluate of social, economic and health vulnerability,
pay attention to relevant vulnerabilities, assess vulnerabilities in situational awareness, involve people with multiple experiences and knowledge in conduction situational awareness in the reaction.
Creating partnerships among first responders, businesses and community stakeholders can ensure that the right people respond to a crisis.
Public-private partnership (PPP) is becoming more and more important since the private sector owns and runs much of the vital functions of society. In addition, the civil society sectors organised voluntary organisations can have an important role to play in supporting the emergency services in the planning, response and recovery phases of most emergencies.
Through social media, members of the public who witness incidents can provide public safety and protection organisations with timely, geographic-based information. This information can be used by decision-makers in planning response strategies, deploying resources in the field, and, in turn, providing updated and accurate information to the public.
Artificial intelligence technology has penetrated all walks of life, bringing great changes to industry development and new experiences to human work and life. Today, Drones, robots and sensors can provide intelligent and accurate information concerning landscapes and damaged buildings. This allows rescue workers to understand the topography of a landscape and the extent of damage to a building. In addition, drones can find victims trapped in debris allowing rescue workers to get to them quickly.
It is worth noting that as all these new ways are helping to manage the risk in the form of planning, mitigation measures, incentives and capital investments, they also bring potential risks of malfunctioning, misinformation or deliberate misuse.
It would be useful to have a European Union level standard of collecting essential information of emergencies and the conduct of the participating organisations and actors. In emergency management, there is risk mitigation, and reduction risk management standards are designed as a tool for continuous improvements.
By learning from past case studies and attempting to foresee future requirements, it may be possible to reduce the negative consequences of extreme weather events through definitive and effective policy decisions.
Focussed on critical infrastructure and public health
Critical infrastructure and public health affected by natural disasters are two combined threats to be given greater attention by crisis managers. More than half of questioned civil protection experts participated in the CRISPRO survey (38 respondents). The questionnaire was published in 5 EU languages and involved regional rescue services, first responders, universities, Crisis Management Units, National Emergency Supply Agency, Regional State Administrative Agencies, Crisis managers and individual experts.
Amongst critical areas of social importance are critical infrastructure, pandemics, natural disasters, drought, epidemics in combination with public disorder and smartening of the systems, ranging from 68 to 23%.
The survey tends to identify the most common combinations of emergencies and dynamic threat effects and better understand how to build a resilience assessment matrix, what to invest in and how to foster the vulnerability of the community systems, people and properties.
The emergency response system is considered a critical domain in disaster response, with 30 answers out of 38. The demand for public preparedness follows it by counting on 60% of the answers. Strategic coordination is gaining half of the reactions. Lastly, the actors mention technological equipment and rescue material (26%).
For gaining effective responses to various types and scales of disasters, communication with the relevant actors, planning, and participatory interaction of all actors is equally important as capacity building based on regular scenario-driven table-top exercises. The local regulatory framework and seconded legislation can diversify risk mitigation measures. As well as fostering of the public interests can be achieved by employment of modern technologies(use IoT, smart systems, AI, simulations, VR, online communication, integrated emergency response systems, digital or traditional early warning systems, etc. define). Cooperation with endangered communities, in terms of addressed work, is highly ranked than general information of the public. Structural investments are given only 18% of the answers.
The respondents highly ranked measures that can be provided and imposed within a small-scale budget due to overall low public spending on investments with a longer return rate. Practically some investments may concern the next generation of the population.
Respondents listed most often hazards that shall be subject to risk mitigation planning in the following order: natural disaster, public order disruption (public events, disruptive and/or dangerous events in public spaces and/or in the online world), CBRN contaminated environment, including biological agents, and infrastructure disruption (including shortage or access to services and citizens’ basic needs) are recurring.
Some respondents also propose to explore how economic and financial reasons and lack of community resources are assigned to the vulnerability of adverse events.
Further, we feature the vulnerability of the citizens’ ecosystems. Utility services are considered most affected by 29 out of 38 answers. Food security and access to drinkable water are claimed also in 58% of the cases, followed by the resident area disorder caused by environmental damages, landslides and floods.
Actors acknowledge that social and healthcare services are critical in terms of importance vs vulnerability. The educational sector is also ranked 42%, followed by cultural, traditions’ restrictions and community habits (27%). The results disclose some new trends in accounting for vulnerability vs values of the society. For example, restrictions and affected habits are considered more important than family connections, which also pledges greater awareness and public awareness of public threats.
Socially most affected are poor and excluded groups(migrants, alone mothers, jobless persons, etc.) for having insufficient and unstable sources to face the disasters(71%), as well as the elder people living in remote regions due to isolation and lack of access to food, water and utility services. In general, children are considered most affected as they are dependent on the care of other people who might be injured, victims, or excluded from basic needs (39%).
In addition, different events can lead to increased poverty and reduced income-generation activities (especially in agriculture). It can also lead to more personal bankruptcy due to decreased incomes and the inability of regular incomes (45-50%). Insolvency of the SME is also pointed out as the source of personal financial vulnerability, which expresses the connectivity between workplace and employees; any disaster causing damages to the small businesses leads to indirect negative effects on the workers and their families.
The last part of the survey provides information on the crisis communication means and capacity-building efforts in the risk management cycle. The investments in early warning count on 64% of answers, SMS services and online reporting systems for mapping hazards and threats(environmental damages, burdens, environmental health issues(air and water quality) are highlighted as the most effective means of crisis communication. Volunteers’ management applications are considered more important than virtual emergency centres. It highlights the importance of collective responsiveness and involvement of the public again, as mentioned in 18 of 38 answers.
The survey will be used to develop a scenario-based risk mitigation assessment matrix that will be publicly available in the form of an online tool on crispro.eu.
