EVITA PROJECT SUCCESSFULLY FINISHED ON 31/12/2014.
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Overview

Controlled (organized) evacuation of the population should be examined as a prevention measure that needs to be carried out timely under certain conditions, while the disastrous event is in progress. These conditions can only be evaluated at local level. The experience with wildfires in Southern European countries has shown that when it comes to minimizing risk, it’s better to be proactive than reactive. To that end, EVITA aims to help national and regional CP authorities as well as industrial managers, hoteliers and local inhabitants answer the following vital question in case they see a wildfire approaching:

“Should I initiate an evacuation and how long do I have to evacuate safely?”.

A conceptual diagram of a trigger buffer. A sensitive site is denoted by S.

Objectives

  • To promote a common understanding of trigger buffer zones as a novel means to assess the time until an active wildfire approaches a sensitive site.
  • To improve operations relating to preparedness and response to wildfires approaching a Seveso II site.
  • To implement a model to define the trigger buffer zones around any point of the case study areas.
  • To develop a software tool which will allow the users to select a site on the case study areas and get the trigger buffer zones as an output.
  • To identify, map and register the Seveso II installations on the industrial case study assessing the risk of a potential fire.
  • To identify the tourist infrastructures on the case study Mediterranean islands (Balearic Islands and Sardinia).
  • To promote the concept of wildfire evacuation trigger buffers focusing on a Seveso II site by means of two exercises (paper and field, conducted by the General Secretarial for Civil Protection of Greece) and a large information day in Athens during Greek EU Presidency in the first half of 2014.
  • To disseminate the project concept to interested beneficiaries and users via dedicated workshops in the three countries (Greece, Spain, Italy).

Exercises

Tabletop Exercise

The TTX took place on 28th March 2014, the day after the Large Athens Workshop. During the TTX, the EU EVITA model was tested at an operational level, and the results deriving from the TTX, the model's strengths and weaknesses and ways of improvement were discussed. After the exercise, a questionnaire was distributed which, along with the results of the workshop and the TTX, contributed to further improving the software. According to these results, the General Secretariat for Civil Protection (G.S.C.P.) will organize, at the end of October 2014, a Full Scale Exercise (FSE). The EU EVITA TTX is designed by the G.S.C.P. and is included in its official program for the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the European Union (www.gr2014.eu). The G.S.C.P. is currently acting as President of the Working Group on Civil Protection (PROCIV) of the Council of the EU.

Full Scale Exercise

This is a single-day simulated scenario full scale exercise in real time. This exercise concerns the event of a wildfire approaching a sensitive site in Thriassio Field near Athens. Observers will attend the exercise from a conference hall. They will be provided with all the necessary material to follow the exercise.

Dissemination

EVITA Event Place Time
Large Information Day Athens 27 March 2014 (back to back with Tabletop exercise)
Islands Workshop I Sardinia 27 June 2014
Islands Workshop II Mallorca 10-11 September 2014
Full Scale Exercise Athens 1-2 December 2014
  • The concept of wildfire evacuation trigger buffers approaching a Seveso II site will be demonstrated by means of a large information day in Athens during Greek EU Presidency in March 2014.
  • Project concepts and ideas will be disseminated to national and regional CP and Emergency authorities, Hoteliers, Hotel Associations, Neighborhood Associations and Holiday Residence Owners/Associations via two dedicated workshops on the case study of Mediterranean islands. The workshops are to take place in Sardinia and Mallorca (May and September 2014, respectively).
  • Interaction and collaboration with the national and regional civil protection authorities will be supported, so that the project concept gets accepted by the CP community and furthermore has a continuation and expansion to other geographic areas and different concepts after the project ends.
  • The EVITA approach will be disseminated to wildfire risk community and promoted to new potential users of different sensitive sites such as children’s camps and hospitals.
  • Evaluation of the EVITA project results through invited local stakeholders (hoteliers, local citizens etc.)

Guidelines for citizens protection from technological accidents (in Greek) - produced by GSCP »

Infographic representation of EVITA project (in Italian) - produced by Region of Sardinia »