6th DRMKC Annual Seminar

A hybrid event co-hosted with the French Ministry of Interior and jointly organized with DG ECHO

This 2-day event aims to share the achievements of the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network (UCPKN) Science Pillar in addressing challenges such as compound, concurrent and cascade events which need to be included in risk analysis or the communication challenges in risk management, among others. Join us if you too want to:

• Know from the operational scientific networks about their needs and expectations from the Science Pillar (session 1)
• Hear from the other scientific networks how they shape their science advice/research agendas accordingly (session 2)
• Learn from the Member States their views on the opportunities/challenges of the integration of the various parallel, complex, connected processes like the National Risk Assessment, the (next) implementation of Disaster Resilience Goals, the development of Scenarios; we want to engage with the large community of DRMKC, also beyond the EU, to get inspiration for new answers to old and new problems (session 3)
• Reflect on the topic of accessibility and communication of scientific knowledge and will present experiences of collaboration between scientists, practitioners, policy- and decision makers as well as application of research in civil protection and disaster risk management planning and operations (session 4).

We will look into needs and gaps but also into solutions and implementations of good practices. We will share the status of initiatives being designed/implemented in the Commission to provide support for the mentioned challenges and we will collect feedbacks and ideas for a proposal plan of action of the Science Pillar for the next 2 years (2023-2024).
This year’s Annual Seminar — co-hosted by the French Ministry of Interior, co-organized with DG ECHO and with opening remarks by the Czech EU Presidency — will be a hybrid event.

As of last year, the DRMKC Annual Seminar became the yearly appointment to assess the status and discuss the next steps of the Science Pillar of the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network. During the 5th DRMKC Annual Seminar (2021) we discussed the two main topics of performing scenario building and defining the Union Disaster Resilience Goals. We also identified the following main challenges in the area of research, which will be discussed throughout this year’s conference:

• Compound, concurrent, cascade events to be included in the risk analysis
• Communication challenges in risk management
• Knowledge of the human factor and its impact on DRM
• The need to go beyond boarders with risk assessment and management approaches
• The need for proactive and prospective services to handle non-linear, complex hazards (e.g. climate change effects like droughts)
• A Multiscale approach (also subnational) for DRM
• Studies on cost/effect of mitigation measures with focus on causes and risk drivers

Tuesday, 22 November 2022

1. 13:00 - 13:55
   Welcome Buffet Lunch
   
   
2. 13:55 - 14:15
   Opening remarks of DAY 1 - Opening remarks from France, Directors of JRC, DG ECHO and CZ Presidency

   Details

   
   
3. 14:15 - 15:30
   SESSION 1 (GAPS) – How can the scientific community enhance operational preparedness and response?

   Purpose /question for the session: identifying needs from the operational actors and scientific communities, and understanding their views on the added-value of the KN for their activities.
   Scientific knowledge is fundamental for a good understanding of the situation and for taking effective decisions on preparations or response. Operational actors, including the ERCC, use various networks of scientific institutes with 24/7 monitoring capacity. Those institutes are usually providing an expert judgment based on the existing scientific knowledge. However, the existing knowledge might have limitations in certain situations. These limitations can come either from the lack of data or from new elements related to specific event. Nevertheless, these challenges might become an opportunity to enhance the scientific knowledge in certain areas and to fill existing gaps. For example, a tsunami in Indonesia caused by an underwater landslide, highlighted the need to further explore this kind of event. In this context the Knowledge Network could enable the interaction between the scientific networks used by operational actors and the wider scientific community. This session aims at highlighting the needs of the users of the scientific knowledge and at triggering the discussion on how to best benefit from the Knowledge Network. The session would also address the issue of access and exchanges of data.

   Details

   
   
4. 15:30 - 16:00
   Break
   
   
5. 16:00 - 17:15
   SESSION 2 (PROCESS) – Feeding the scientific needs of the DRM community into science advice and research agendas

   Purpose /question for the session: how make sure that the identified knowledge needs are orienting science advice and national/international research agendas.
   Crises that have occurred over the last decades and even more, coming one on top of the other in the last few years, are a manifestation of the complexity of threats and systemic vulnerabilities of our era. Cascading and cross-boundary impacts, ripple effects across spatial and temporal scales and triggering of unsuspected chains of losses to economy and society through highly interdependent supply chains have created an unprecedented demand for scientific advice on the one hand and for new research to find solutions on the fly on the other. New forms of scientific endeavour are developing requiring new criteria of assessment and new codes of conducts. Scientific advice must draw on scientific evidence to provide policy makers with a clear understanding of what is known and what can be eventually done in a crisis. Such advice is also fed in its turn by new research that produces new results as the crisis is unfolding. Science in under pressure: on the one hand to provide useful and usable advice when uncertainties and stakes are still very high, on the other to rush studies and experiments much beyond the traditional protocols that are followed in academia. Somehow, the scientific needs are both different and interconnected across the entire disaster cycle from prevention to response and recovery. In peace time the opportunity is there to develop new models and innovate information and technological systems and to apply them in experimental setting. During the crisis, as has been done during the Covid 19, ad hoc funding schemes can be envisaged and made more systematic to rapidly trigger research on the specific type of crisis that has occurred in order to elicit available knowledge and search for solutions. In the recovery, lessons learnt and improvement of both models and tools can be envisaged and asked for by the scientific community. There is a clear interplay between the research that can be asked for along the three phases and also, for more local types of events it may well be that different phases are experienced in different countries.

   Details

   
   
6. 17:15 - 17:30
   Closing remarks of DAY 1
   
   
7. 19:00 - 23:00
   Social dinner
   
   

Wednesday, 23 November 2022

1. 08:30 - 09:00
   Arrival - Coffee
   
   
2. 09:00 - 09:15
   Opening remarks of DAY 2
   
   
3. 09:15 - 10:30
   SESSION 3 (SOLUTIONS): how to operationalise DRM scientific knowledge

   Purpose /question for the session: how the scientific research is supporting the development and implementation of the Disaster Resilience Goals and the Scenarios.
   While political leadership and community engagement are essential for the successful implementation of science-informed policies and action, the scientific community has a responsibility to formulate applicable methodologies and solutions that respond to real-word challenges. The Commission together with Member States is working towards improving resilience to large scale disasters by developing Union Disaster Resilience Goals based on current- and forward-looking scenarios, including the effects of climate change and cross- sectoral impact analysis. Scientific information- and evidence-based approaches are crucial to advance disaster resilience and scenario building. This session will address the mechanism for operationalizing DRM science into the Disaster Resilience Goals and Scenario-building processes: what kind of databases, models, assessment tools and services are needed to implement a performance-based approach for monitoring the progress towards disaster resilience building.

   Details

   
   
4. 10:30 - 11:00
   Break
   
   
5. 11:00 - 12:15
   SESSION 4 (COMMUNICATION) - Making scientific knowledge easily accessible for different actors: good practices of science support to policy and decision-making

   Purpose /question for the session: the session will reflect on the topic of accessibility and communication of scientific knowledge and will present experiences of collaboration between scientists, practitioners, policy- and decision makers as well as application of research in civil protection and disaster risk management planning and operations.
   Integrating and applying scientific knowledge in the various phases of the disaster risk management cycle is not always straightforward. Scientific knowledge is often fragmented among different national, scientific, and technical communities. Frequently, they do not or cannot coordinate with decision makers at the different institutional levels where disaster risks are managed. In a similar manner, operational actors at times struggle with information overload, accessing the right knowledge at the right time, or selecting what is the most relevant for their work. The Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network aims to address this communication gap.

   Details

   
   
6. 12:15 - 12:30
   Closing remarks of DAY 2

   Wrap-up from moderators of the sessions.

   Details

   
   
7. 12:30 - 14:00
   Lunch
   
   

Wednesday, 23 November 2022

1. 14:00 - 16:00
   Knowledge Network Board, closed session, only for invited Member States representatives
   
   

ec-drmkc-annual-seminar@ec.europa.eu

NOVOTEL PARIS GARE DE LYON - 2 RUE HECTOR MALOT 75012 PARIS

The link to the previous DRMKC Annual Seminars is https://drmkc.jrc.ec.europa.eu/events-news/drmkc-annual-seminars

Registration closed.

The event will be web streamed at the following two links:

• 22 November 2022, afternoon: https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/6th-drmkc-annual-seminar-day-1

• 23 November 2022, morning: https://webcast.ec.europa.eu/6th-drmkc-annual-seminar-day-2