I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

4. Working Group: Crisis Management
4.1 Introduction
Crisis Management (CM) is a core capability of modern societies.
Managing the return to normal life in case of major incidents as quickly
and swiftly as possible is paramount for limiting damage, chaos, and
panic. It becomes even more important as an unshaken focussed
leadership supports citizens in upholding their spirits and enables them
to contribute to the recovery eff ort.
Crisis Management is a multidimensional discipline. It is typically
regarded as a complex incorporating both the managerial aspect of
organising the mission and the technical facilities employed to assist.
This mixture becomes more intricate as Crisis Management evolves
along the phases of a crisis, addressing pre-incident phases as well as
post-incident phases (cf. picture 2).
Crisis Management principles are independent from the type of incident. Every incident has its specifics and requires
specialised instrumentation, but from the management perspective all missions operate similar processes. However,
crisis situations have a tendency to become more remote, more dynamic and cover an increasing geographical area.
These elements, together with the resulting necessity to inter-operate in a multi-national set of multiple organisations
including the affected public generate new challenges for the management element of CM.
On the technical side a number of new technologies heavily increase the potential situational awareness. New
sensors allow a more accurate classification of a situation, and information management infrastructures foster the
compilation of a growing amount of information at command and control, requiring new forms of display and
interaction.
4.1.1 Crisis Management in the context of ESRIF
ESRIF aims to identify research needs. Threats and risks are positioned at the beginning of the analysis. Withstanding
a risk that materialises in a crisis situation incorporates challenges of a different nature. In dealing with the challenges
certain capabilities need to be present. Any gap in this set of capabilities requires investigations and research in order
to close the gap.
Picture 1: ESRIF methodology of work
Driven by the “prepared to react” maxim as part of the ESRIF working arrangement, Working Group 4 focussed on the specifi c
analysis of the needs and the defi ciencies within the “response” and “recovery” phase in man made and natural/technical
catastrophes. It is evident though, that preparedness aspects of training and exercises need to gain importance in particular
with wide integration of the public.
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