Overview
Empowering the public to be better prepared for crises is a logical way to strengthen crisis management, although in the past resources have been focused mainly on the activities of response organisations. Nowadays authorities realize that the behaviour of citizens is vital to crisis preparedness, response and recovery.
The goal of this project is to develop knowledge about key enablers which will help authorities improve community resilience and to show promising areas for further research and implementation of a community approach supported by human technology, social media tools and mobile devices. The focus is on crisis situations that occur in or have implications for the European Union member states and associate states, while also drawing on the experiences of other countries.
The researchers investigated best practices and key enablers enhancing public resilience by conducting desk studies and an online international expert questionnaire. They also brought together experiences with and challenges of a community approach involving the public in crisis management. For this purpose they implemented a desk study and interviews to scrutinize the cooperation with local groups on the municipality level. To investigate the potential of technology in enhancing public resilience several more desk studies and focus group interviews were conducted.
International Disaster and Risk Conferences
As one of the partners is the initiator of the well known International Disaster and Risk Conferences (IDRC) in Davos, Switzerland, this provided opportunities to arrange interaction with experts in the field of crisis management and communication during IDRC 2012 and IDRC 2014.
