Supporting Communities to Become Resilient Through Better Crisis Management

Imagine developing innovative solutions to tackle emergency situations, but when it comes to their implementation a series of practical challenges emerge. How best to account for the uptake and mainstreaming of effective novel technologies by the key actors who will be using them? The PathoCERT project, through its pilot cases and multi-stakeholder engagement processes, tackles this, enabling not only the testing of developed technologies, but also facilitating co-development and feedback mechanisms thanks to its Communities of Practices (CoPs) approach.

An efficient response to waterborne pathogen contamination events requires a high-level of coordination among all actors, from those in charge of the command to those operating on the ground. Applied technologies and tools need to facilitate the effective deployment of first responders’ responses during these events.

In April 2023, the first earthquake simulation exercise of the PathoCERT project took place in Granada, Spain. Over 230 first responders – ranging from civil protection, medical services, firefighters, the police and regional and municipalities – participated and had the opportunity to experience the innovative components and functionalities of the PathoCERT technologies. The simulation took place in two different emergency situations: one involving a damage in the water supply network resulting in water contamination; the other simulated a landslide affecting the city’s water treatment plant.

As a follow up to the day-long exercise, all local actors and first responders came together with the consortium partners in three Community of Practice workshop. Through a combination of written feedback and plenary exchanges, they had the opportunity to provide detailed feedback on each PathoCERT technology and its respective functionalities.

Following a three-year long period of work on the development of new tools, the real-life exercises combined with the Community of Practice discussions are a key milestone of the project not only to test their efficiency but also collect valuable feedback from relevant local and regional actors.

For further information, please contact Francesca Grossi.