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.
The main objective of the MELODY project is to define, develop and deploy a harmonized CBRN training curriculum for first responders and medical staff, including ambulance drivers, paramedics, and emergency room (ER) personnel. The target group includes members of agencies that are responsible for dealing with emergencies, being unintentional or intentional releases of CBRN, which require immediate action. The training curriculum should provide a clear picture of the possible consequences and effects and how to act together in a safe and effective and efficient way. Melody members and destination home page.
The Virtual Control Room (VCR) established in International Hellenic University (IHU) is one of the most complete and modern VCR all over Europe. The VCR of IHU has been funded by the Administrative Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece. It specializes in the fundamental and advanced training of students and professionals on control room operations and emergency responses during technological or natech accidents.
Most of the scenarios examined in the VCR are not hypothetical or fiction products, but rather the result of long-term interviews with industry executives, field operators and control room operators in order to reproduce accurately, efficiently and effectively near-misses, dangerous incidents and accidents. This is particularly beneficial to the trainees for getting well acquainted with what-if fact-scenarios of our developed comprehensive database, and coping with difficult circumstances, often more difficult than they actually were. To that end, trainees have the opportunity to test and understand their limits in a highly secure environment; and on the other hand the industrial executives to be informed about the suitability and readiness of their staff.
The Civil Protection Knowledge Partnership Platform – the Middle East will bridge the knowledge holders relevant to disaster management actors and enhance coordination, cooperation, compatibility, and complementarity between capacities and experts‘ competence. We are facilitating the cooperation between civil protection actors and humanitarian aid providers.
The initiative’s ambition is to collect and share knowledge, experience, expertise, skills, competence, lessons learned, and best practices in close cooperation with civil protection and disaster management authorities and knowledge holders from the public and private sector. We aim to stimulate research and innovation and a shared understanding of prevention, preparedness and response.
The project will result in a new and consolidated existing partnership in civil protection and disaster risk management in the Middle East, enhancing the cooperation and synergies in prevention, preparedness, and response. Disaster Risk Management actors of the Middle East will connect with counterparts inside the European Union. Also, the partners will strengthen the cooperation between civil protection and the humanitarian community following the role model of the International Humanitarian Partnership.
The partnerswill consider scenario-based approaches. Civil protection and disaster risk management actors come together and team up to exchange good practices, knowledge and expertise under specific disaster scenarios.
The project will identify and strengthen existing relevant civil protection and disaster risk management actors and facilitate the establishment and expansion of new partnerships in the Middle East. Moreover, the project will explore synergies between civil protection and
humanitarian aid based on a „cross-fertilization“ approach
in the following countries of the Southern Neighborhood: Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine;
Jointly partners from the participating countries will identify common priorities of both disaster risk management and humanitarian actions. Data collection and knowledge sharing, expertise and skills and consolidated scientific evidence through cooperation, partnership, and networking will be valued into a virtual platform for information exchange and knowledge sharing.
LinkedIn: HEUREKA – Civil Protection Knowledge Partnership Platform Middle East
Multi-hazard impact forecasting is critical in any crisis leadership. Any risk interconnection is an opportunity to improve prevention and preparedness, conclude participants of the international CRISPRO networking event on April 27th 2021. While the communities favour the smartness of the economies and social life, the urban and rural environments become more vulnerable. The interdependency of biotopes, cities, infrastructures, industrial zones and societies multiply the effects of any unexpected also extreme environmental conditions causing the technological interruption.
A wildfire in Galicia (Spain) started on August 3rd, 2006. In twelve days, the natural phenomenon was distributed to 1636 local fires burning over 100.000 km2 of forest and triggered terrain damage. IN the next three months, microclimate changes of extreme wind and storms multiply the damages. The burnt wood slides into water streams, storms brought floods that emerged mudslides destroying the coastal line(There was collected a split of 5000 tones of mud. Dozens of seafood species got contaminated, and 24.000 jobs affected. The devastating volumes of the environmental, economic and social damages completely changes the approach from single-hazard corrective actions to multiple assessment and management of the risks of potential hazards on the territory of Galicia, explained Marta Trueba, Universidade da Coruña, Spain.
Also, in the French region of Savoy, the authorities are carefully monitoring the chemical factories that can easily contaminate the agricultural lands in the event of a fire, or heavy rains after a wildfire, unlocking landslide mass movements, added Josseline Le Fèvre, SDI73.
Using the concepts of big-data processing and machine learning through single-point information and data integration allows the creation of new products as a combination of available information. Three essential information facilities are laying the foundations of the holistic approach to aggregation and rapid online assessment of information: profiles of the hazards from historical events, sensing technologies, risk maps, critical objects counting for vulnerability, and a set of elements(sectors, groups, territories, etc.) of reference impacts. In addition, the information from crowdsourcing, emergency 112, and cartographical tools, searchers, and publications alike Wiki contribute with variables of data and references to potential effects, added Xavier Llort from HYDS, a partnering SME of the ANYWEHER project. The weather-induced emergency management initiative offers catalogues or weather and climate forecasts products /snow, fire, storm, flood, severe winds, droughts, etc.) advancing climate risk forecasting and global situational awareness for civil protection actors.
A na-tech accident can be a major challenge for rescue services and crisis management authorities, added Timo Hellenberg from Hellenberg International security consultancy group. He stressed that from 1970 to 2012, almost 9 000 disasters, 2 million deaths, and important economic losses were reported globally due to hazards such as floods, tropical cyclones, and snowstorms.
In January 2005, Flooding in the Northern Baltic Sea occurred in the coastal areas in Finland, Estonia and Russia. In Finland, critical moments were in Helsinki and nearby, in the Loviisa nuclear power plant. The na-tech demonstrated that target prevention, preparedness and response plans are very important for the public sector resistance. Communication and intra-organisational reforms need to rebuild the trust to adopt new methods and learn from ”outside” experience and practices.
Hellenberg International also presented the international RAIN initiative about systematic risk management dealing with the impact of extreme weather conditions on critical infrastructure and bringing mitigation tools to enhance the security of the pan-European infrastructure networks.
Globally, the public order is affected by climate changes. Due to draughts in the countries of the Global South lack sources and food, and people flee to look for better conditions. Prof. Giray SADIK from the Yildimir Beyazit University presented a study demonstrating a critical analysis on how refugee influx increase the public disorder by triggering more terrorism driven events in Europe, and globally.
Finally, the importance of online and cost-effective education and table top-exercises for the first responders and policymakers in the field of disaster resilience was demonstrated by three DG ECHO-supported initiatives: “Go digital – a new approach to project management”, ResponSEE (Planning, development and conduct of a Union Civil Protection exercise response to an earthquake in South-East Europe, HEUREKA (Knowledge Network Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan). The projects also ensure knowledge transfer from theory into practice, which means implementing the concepts, gaining knowledge for the practice, and finally exploring and strengthening synergies between civil protection, humanitarian aid organisations, and private entities. Response strengthens the disaster preparedness in the Western Balkans to bring Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to the UCPM (increase interoperability, enable internet. cooperation). At the same time, the HEUREKA boosts cooperation with the Middle east. Last but not least the AFAN network boosts an information hub for all forest risks and disturbances knowledge relevant for academic users and all risk managers. Furthermore, the fire-disaster driven network enables the users to “connect-collect-exchange” within their communities and meet new potential collaboration partners from all around Europe.
The CRISPRO partnership will redress the examples mentioned above of experience into an interactive online tool for assessing multiple hazards. The idea is to stress the multiple impacts of various events and abandon the philosophy of isolated causes. While interacting risks describes the interaction between environmental disaster drivers and casualty chain, the compound risks refer to simultaneous or successive extreme events (example: climate change and statistical or physical components). In the latter, the background conditions amplify the event. The interconnected risks count on the interdependency of human, environmental, and technological systems and outline the impact on all named systems. Last but not least, the cascading risks outline the disruption of critical / important infrastructure within the tightly coupled organisational system.
If you or your organisation wants to be part of the international open-mode assessment tool on projecting and strengthening resilience in the event of multiple hazards, please share and propose topics, ideas, and solutions by taking part in the CRISPRO online survey.
ANYWHERE tools enable society as a whole and the main civil protection agencies to respond more rapidly than today to extreme climate and weather events and better cope with the high social, environmental, and economic impacts of these extremes. ANYWHERE established a pan-European platform on the identification of extreme climate risks in a number of geographic regions. It refers to critical situations that could lead to loss of life and economic damages. Such early warning should improve protection measures and facilitate the coordination of rescue operations in case of catastrophic situations. The platform serves as a decision-making tool for various authorities when faced with a situation of crisis. It provides state-of-the-art early warning systems to help exposed populations avert disaster. ANYCaRE (ANYWHERE Crisis and Risk Experiment) is a role-playing game specially designed to investigate crisis decision-making associated with weather-related risks in Europe. Specifically, it allows analysing “if “and “how” the tools to raise self-preparedness and self-protection resulting from the ANYWHERE project can support the decision chain in warning systems towards better response. The game simulates the dynamics of the warning and response processes, starting with detecting a potential weather-related threat and ending with decisions related to the coordination of the emergency response. Participants are invited to play specific roles in the warning and decision chain to decide about emergency actions to be taken in response to a weather-induced hazard in a European context. The roles to be adopted (hydro-meteorologists, municipality, road services, first responders, school services) and the potential decisions/actions to be chosen by the players are pre-defined. The players examine weather forecast data and impact-based vulnerability information, interact with others and debate on relevant emergency measures and decide collectively what protective actions, if any, are needed.
ANYcARE serious game at PROCIV workshop -Finland 2019
A4Campiste: increasing self-protection at campsites located in flood-prone areas in Catalonia
A4Cor: ANYWHERE operational demonstration in Corsica Pilot Site
ANYWHERE for CENEM (A4CENEM) National Control Centre for Emergency Management- Spain
ANYHWERE: A new paradigm in climate emergency amangement
A virtual centre for the assistance of the Fire and Rescue Service was established in the Czech Republic. The centre is virtually based on tvhasici.cz. It aims to also support the citizens in actively managing the current situation and overcome the most difficult moments. A focus is given to COVID-19 support of experts from psychology, population protection, and medical sectors.
The website was created at the Government Council for Mental Health initiative, which proposed the involvement of the psychological service of the Fire and Rescue Service of the Czech Republic in the psychological support of the general population.
„Although the tvhasici.cz project is currently focused on the most current topic – tackling the covid-19 epidemic. The teams will enhance the information covering a wide range of security threats and life situations, all to fulfil our long-term efforts, which is to increase preparedness and strengthen citizens‘ resilience, “ adds František Paulus, director of the Institute for the Protection of the Population.
The virtual assistance centre’s deployment enables a broader human-centred approach in disaster management and protection of the population.
CBRN-E crimes are closely linked to environmental crime and their number is constantly growing. Their investigation is a major challenge, and many countries urgently need to improve their systems. An important role for law enforcement agencies is to identify, secure and provide relevant evidence in court proceedings to ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice. On-site investigation in the CBRN context must therefore meet high quality standards to maintain the safety of investigators and preserve the evidence, which requires skilled and educated experts. This preprint paper describes the basic attributes of a crime scene investigation under CBRN conditions and recommends a global framework of procedures for investigators. It represents a basis for future Biological and Chemical Crime Scene Management Guidance Manual for Law Enforcement planned to be developed by international team of experts under the Umbrella of UNICRI. Download the publication.
A methodology for tracking and analysing the needs for standardisation and certification harmonisation will be defined and enforced by 17 partners of the VALKYRIES project financed by H2020. The new approach will allow the early identification of issues related to the conceptualisation, design, implementation, integration, and deployment of the EU disaster resiliency tools. A complete consultation strategy will facilitate the tool to the different stakeholders expected to act at each capability development `phase, ranging from providers to end-users.
VALKYRIES initiative will develop, integrate and demonstrate capabilities for enabling immediate and coordinated emergency response, including search and rescue, security and health, in scenarios of natural/provoked catastrophes with multiple victims, with special application in cases in which several regions or countries are affected and hence greater interoperability being required. H2020-VALKYRIES will propose both the design and development of a modular, interoperable, scalable and secure platform, which will allow the integration between legacy solutions and new technologies. The platform will deploy services and dynamically adapt its behaviour, as the emergency requires it.
The tool will be designed and proved through use cases and demonstrators emphasising cross-frontier and cross-sectorial BLOS (Beyond Line of Sight) scenarios.
We aim to develop a Risk Assessment Support Tool in support of the policy- and decision-makers in systematising the interactions between related sectors/disciplines (intervention areas) to the positive effects of a given policy (characterised as one of several management options) are enhanced. The negative impacts across sectors/disciplines are identified and adequately addressed/mitigated.
Please help us improve our knowledge on disaster risk reduction by completing CRISPRO survey on multi-hazards and combined threats with cascading effects related to crisis leadership management.
Natural, technological (man-made) and biological risk management practices require a comprehensive understanding of the interactions and interdependencies of the related natural, technological and societal systems. Risk assessment can be challenging even for the impacts of a single natural hazard on a single facility. The focus is the multiple and/or combined hazards and multiple interacting facilities at the same time. One needs to also bear in mind domino events and consequences with cascading impacts (e.g. via business interruption), requiring a comprehensive and multi-vulnerability risk assessment involving complex chain(s) severity considerations.
We aim to enhance the community governance and resilience for emergency preparedness and disaster management and link prevention with financial and policy decisions to management interventions. We will work the tools for planning and re-considering on by moving up and down the cause-effect line to easily elucidate the nature and magnitude of the interactions and disaster effects:
To map simultaneous, cascading, even disconnected, but temporally subsequent, hazards or threats which complicate organisational responses. These various forms of interdependency are short- and mid-term future.
To develop a comparative set of approaches to addressing the important challenges to modern civil protection.
To develop an online tool for assessing organisational and prevention methods for mitigating at least some aspects of disasters and risks expected.
To stress on the interdependency of modern threats/risks;
To focus on the need for economic efficiency;
To adapt to the changing nature of communication.
To examine the challenges in the context of community response practices and high-impact events driving system adaptations;
To link the system adaptations with political and economic windows of opportunity to determine changes in structural and non-structural prevention measures.
