Societal Resilience: Increased risk Awareness and preparedness of citizens

Enhanced understanding and improved knowledge and situational awareness of disasterrelated risks by citizens, empowered to act.

Expected Outcomes: Projects’ results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes:

  • Advanced disaster / crisis simulations and impact assessments supporting decision-making processes based on best available knowledge, adaptive strategies and methodologies, including accurate exposure data and adequate vulnerability curves, quantitative hazard information with comparable metrics across different risks (especially addressing multi-hazards situations), including losses and damages data and qualitative information issued from historical testimonies and case studies.
  • Design of preparedness actions linking together multilevel interventions that need to involve citizens, communities, business organisations, public administrations for empowering citizens and their communities to act by themselves together with emergency services and managing spontaneous volunteers in the case of a disaster or crisis-related emergency of any kind (natural hazards, including pandemics, or man-made including terrorist threats) in the form of best practices and guidelines exploiting local resources (knowledge, networks, tools) developed with practitioners and local decision-makers.
  • Risk and resilience assessment studies and outputs in support of long-term multi-hazard management strategies (e.g. climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction and prevention strategies) with a focus on vulnerable regions prone to multiple hazard occurrences, involving interdisciplinary teams in different scientific and technological fields (such as geology, climate, man-made hazards, critical infrastructures and assets, history, economics and social sciences).
  • Advanced data management, information update and forecast / early warning systems (including via satellite) in support of evolving public understanding and decision-making needs in the field of multi-hazard preparedness policy and planning, taking into account data uncertainties and including the determination of baseline scenarios and corresponding risk thresholds, as well as data potentially available (e.g. from earth observations, historic databases, academic and business/private sector repositories, climate projections, etc.) and near-real-time impact simulations combined with data-farming approaches.
  • Communication and dissemination platforms supporting an increased dialogue and cooperation between scientific, technological, practitioners, policy-makers, private sector (e.g. insurers), NGOs, citizens and community-based organisations for sharing and building-up the knowledge of hazards and related risks for a comprehensive awareness (and preparedness) of the risk at all levels (risk memory and implementation of lessons learnt into policy actions), taking into account various uncertainties that may affect decision-making
  • Demonstration exercises involving citizens, training and educational institutions, local decision-makers, employees in public administrations and in business companies, and practitioners, to identify practices, test guidelines and communication strategies in nearreal-case situations in the framework of field exercises, virtual trainings and serious gaming, school / university curricula and professional training.