The resilience of society in precaution, protection and contraception can be sustainably strengthened from the experience of the ongoing pandemic. The Public Security Future Forum brought together actors from BOS, politics, research and business in five thematic groups in order to develop good ideas for strengthening civil protection. A short version of the paper with the most important points will be published in August / September

The workshop would like to emphasize the need for heat action plans in Germany, present concrete examples and point out barriers that have to be overcome if heat-related mortality and morbidity are not to increase significantly.

This workshop discusses how Covid-19 affects development efforts in partner countries, why we need to acknowledge systemic risks, and what we can do about it.

Putting localization in DRR into practice: exchange of experiences with DRR practitioners from Asia and Africa

The recent events in Rhineland Palantine and North Rhine Westfalia as well as Belgium demonstrated the potential dangers of floodings, once again. Especially, the specific challenges in the context of climate change and the related increase in extreme weather events. Based on the impressions from the response, participants will have the opportunity to exchange on innovation opportunities. 

How are hazards and risks, potential victims and civil protection organizations changing? What demands will be placed on civil protection in the future? Which lessons learned from the 2015/16 refugee situation and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic point the way forward?

We present and discuss recommendations for public warnings based on the research project “Psychological and Social Aspects of Warnings for the Population” (SAWaB). 

Wildfires have become a regular occurrence in Germany. In this workshop the State Fire Service Institute NRW presents its research and training efforts to identify potential wildfires, strengthen leadership training and improve operational capacities.

Through the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), the European Union aims to strengthen cooperation between EU Member States on civil protection and to improve joint prevention, preparedness and response to disasters. Living European solidarity, efficient and sustainable networking of actors across Europe and at different levels, as well as an interdisciplinary, cross-border and cross-sector exchange of information, knowledge and experience are now more important than ever in civil protection and disaster management. This is exactly the objective of the new Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network. It aims to support learning from the past and preparing for new dangers through the continuous exchange of experiences, expertise and innovation – i.e. “to build forward better”. The cooperation of civil protection and disaster management practitioners with academia, science and research is crucial to carry out evidence-based disaster prevention, to integrate the latest research results, innovative technologies (e.g. virtual reality/augmented reality) and teaching approaches (e.g. e- and blended learning) into civil protection training and practice, and thus optimise these.

How can emergency services prepare for incidents such as the 2015 Paris terror attacks or the 2020 Beirut port explosion?

This interactive workshop for practitioners explores approaches based on real-life examples and theoretical frameworks to prepare to and responding to complex large-scale mass casualty incidents in an urban context.