D62 European Scale Implementation Recommendations Report – ACRI-ST, CNRS.DTP

As part of the final review meeting of the RETINA project in the Azores in May 2005, the RETINA “users”, representing the risk management community from all three Natural laboratories, formed a panel to lead a discussion entitled “Towards risk management at the European level”. The panel represented the Civil Protection agencies, including Bernard Jannin (F), Antonio Cunha (PT), and Agust Gunnar Gylfason (IS). Although the discussion ranged widely, the group achieved consensus on the conclusions and recommendations listed below.

Conclusions and recommendations:

§ The RETINA “users”, composed primarily of Civil Protection decision-makers, have benefited from the results of the RETINA Project in all three Natural Laboratories.

§ The Civil Protection groups in the Iceland, Alps, and Azores Natural laboratories have learned several important lessons from the RETINA project and have incorporated these lessons into their work procedures.

§ All RETINA partners appreciated the dialogue between the three natural laboratories with different hazards and approaches to them.

§ All RETINA partners appreciated the dialogue between the civil protection and scientific communities as mutually beneficial.

§ The RETINA “users” learned more about the way scientists evaluate geophysical processes and validate that information, primarily through hypothesis-testing and peer review.

§ Similarly, the RETINA “scientists” learned more about the needs of the civil protection community, especially the need for hard facts in real time during the “alert” and “response” phases of the disaster cycle.

§ During these two phases, time is too short for the scientists to validate their information. Accordingly, the scientists and their instruments are more useful to civil protection workers as “eyes and ears observing in the field” than as “oracles looking into the future”.

§ The RETINA consortium recommends that members of the scientific community go to the field during a situation and communicate with the Civil Protection services according to a protocol prepared in advance.

§ Effort in the other phases of the disaster cycle, notably documentation, risk analysis, mitigation and preparedness, are equally important for disaster reduction. It is important to include experts in these domains (e.g., civil engineers for para-seismic building codes, economists for evaluating their cost-to-benefit ratios, and psycho-social scientists for addressing issues of risk perception).

§ During these other phases of the disaster cycle, when the scientists have the time for hypothesis testing and peer review, their far-sighted views can contribute substantially to risk management, especially when combined with those of other actors.

§ The RETINA partners recommend that civil protection and scientific communities elsewhere in Europe gain experience from the lessons learned in RETINA.

§ The RETINA partners recommend that Europe work to extend, maintain and strengthen the bridges between the civil protection and scientific communities.

§ The RETINA partners recommend that further work follow the RETINA project to apply its methodologies, for example, by staging another simulation exercise like those in RETINA with realistic scenarios based on coupled geophysical phenomena and involving Civil Protection participants and observers from the entire European Union.

§ The RETINA partners recommend extending this bridge-building model to include other actors involved in risk management.

The lessons learned from the RETINA project will help manage risk in the years to come because we have built solid bridges between the scientific and geophysical communities including the people who work and influence policy in the three Natural Laboratories.

The conclusions and recommendations above will be published on the public part of the RETINA web site.

At the European level, we plan to extend this bridge-building effort in the form of a Specific Support Action entitled, “ROULETTE: Risk Optimization Using Legal, Economic, Terrestrial and Telecommunications Expertise”.