Testing an interactive platform to inform public disaster preparedness and response

Symposium title: "The societal side of early warning and evacuation decisions" Involving the population in the development of early warning and hazard alerting processes is fundamentally important, given the population is the... [ view full abstract ]

Symposium title: "The societal side of early warning and evacuation decisions"

Involving the population in the development of early warning and hazard alerting processes is fundamentally important, given the population is the target of these forms of risk information. The POP-ALERT project seeks to engage directly with European populations and help to promote disaster preparedness in a rapid, effective and efficient manner. The project focuses on developing contextually sensitive and target-group specific information by blending traditional crisis preparedness and initial response strategies with the use of innovative and contemporary ICT tools. POP-ALERT seeks to improve current practices around the use of risk messaging and cultural information sharing to create awareness using technologies and approaches that offer the best form of accessibility and penetration by citizens and authorities. This presentation delivers the results of a pilot scenario exercise used to support and improve public response to an earthquake crisis scenario conducted in Lisbon, Portugal (February, 2016), in collaboration with Lisbon municipality emergency services. Utilising the PANDORA digital learning environment and crisis simulation system, the exercise will provide public participants with access to a broad variety of risk information and tools to support response activities as desired by the participants, and as required by the hazard scenario. By comparing trial participants’ responses with a control group of the public asked to also respond, but without the support of the training tools, the trial aims to assess whether this interactive population awareness framework can improve the performance of the general public in a crisis scenario.