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

ASSESSMENT OF
THE SITUATION AND
DECISION MAKING
EFFECTIVE
(MULTINATIONAL)
COOPERATION
COMMUNICATION AND
INFORMATION TOWARDS
THE MEDIA AND THE
PUBLIC
The leadership structure may require constant adaptation along with the development of
the scene. Hand-over procedures together with legal provision controlling the access to
information in all phases are required. In particular, as with the growing size of the incident,
political considerations are involved.
Individual organisations are well organised and perform well.
Co-operation however requires a broad set of technical and non-technical skills. Each
involved organisation including the industry directly aff ected by the accident follows
individual goals with a culture typical for these organisations. Understanding not only these
cultural diff erences but also motivation based on legal circumstance that may even result
in diff erent technology used and incorporating them eff ectively into a Crisis Management
team is crucial. This is a key challenge for crisis situations with a huge geographical spread.
Specifi c challenges are diff erent standards for identifying hazardous materials and
documentation, language barriers, diffi culties to trace back the manufacturer, the need
for rapid risk assessment, based e.g. on real meteorological conditions on-site, realtime
transmission of the risk assessment to the diff erent responding agencies, lack of
interoperability of communication systems, lack of GIS systems and lack of standard
formats, communication between responding agencies and between fi rst responders on
the ground, diff erent standard operating procedures, lack of standardised denominators
and terminology, lack of agreed standards for toxicity levels, etc.
Modern communications technologies allow practically everyone to actively participate in
the public perception of a crisis. Not only real time coverage of established news stations
but also social networks (e.g. facebook, twitter) become opinion leaders generating
information where the quality and validity is not confi rmed.
The confi dence of the population in the acting authorities is under special scrutiny and
aff ects cooperation in following instructions and orders.
People tend to trust more in what friends say than what comes from an anonymous
authority. Therefore information spread over social networks may strongly aff ect the public
perception of a situation. The crisis responders need to
Provide real time information to a multi-cultural audience and to overcome cultural and
language barriers.
Fight myths: toxic and moreover radiological and biological accidents generally generate
great fear worsened by existing myths and misconceptions about the nature of the risk.
PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS The emergent psychological needs of the population may aggregate and contribute to
panic and disproportionate fear.
The challenge is to provide acceptable psychological and psychosocial support (and
possibly advice as far as managing the crisis is concerned) to the aff ected public and
the Crisis Management teams, which also could suff er from the traumatic eff ects of the
incident.
CONSEQUENCE
MANAGEMENT
Table 7: Challenges to the “Major Industrial Accidents” risk scenario
Interruption of critical infrastructure for a long period of time leads to massive outfall.
Ensuring business continuity, however, protection of the environment and maintaining
public order are particular challenges for consequence management.
In the case of biological and radiological contamination, however, the crisis may last
for many years, demanding long-term oriented, sustainable response and recovery
measures.
4.2.5 Core Challenges for Crisis Management
The detailed assessment of the four selected risk scenarios reveals diff erent perspectives, as well as a common notion of
the main operational challenges for Crisis Management. This conforms to the initial hypothesis that CM needs are rather
independent from specifi c incidents.
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