Kalliopi Kravari¹, Elena Samourkasidou¹, Athanasios Kravaris¹, Dimitrios Emmanoloudis¹, Nikolaos C. Kokkinos² and Michail Chalaris²
¹ASSIST Lab (Analysis and Management of Natural Disasters and Technological Risks), International Hellenic University, Thessaloniki, Greece
²Department of Chemistry, International Hellenic University, Kavala, Greece

Part of the book: The Challenges of Disaster Planning, Management, and Resilience

Abstract

The overarching objective of the RESISTANT project is to build the first European Crisis Training Platform to train first responders through threefold comprehensive training: educational training with the state-of-the-art knowledge in safety, including tools for characterisation of hazards and associated risks, operational training on mock-up real scale transport, and innovative virtual reality training reproducing the entire accident scenarios, intervention strategies and tactics, including the whole chain of command and communications between all members of the first responders team, facility managers, and public (e.g., volunteer fire fighters, children, citizens with disabilities). RESISTANT put also in place a virtual ‘agora’ for first and second responders, academia, market practitioners, volunteers and other civil protection stakeholders to share knowledge and exchange best practices. This chapter presents the RESISTANT’s educational and training infrastructure which will be used to train first responders through threefold comprehensive training: educational training, operational training, virtual reality training. The educational training aims to equip first responders with state-of-the-art knowledge in safety. The operational-level training consists of practical exercises (table-top and Full-Scale Exercises) based on different emergency scenarios, designed in a way that they capture the current needs of the key stakeholders defined in target groups, while the virtual reality training is based on a virtual reality facility that will expand training potential and the effect of educational and operational training. It will reproduce the entire accident scenarios, intervention strategies, and tactics, including the whole chain of command and communications between all members of the first responders’ team, facility managers, and the public.

Keywords: crisis training platform, first responders, hazards, risks

References

“About the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction.” UN World Conference on Disaster Risk
Reduction.
Dewey, J. (1938) Experience and Education. New York: Collier Books.
Phillips, D. C. (1995). The good, the bad, and the ugly: The many faces of constructivism. Educational
researcher, 24(7), 5-12.
UNISDR.“About the Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015).” Prevention Web.
United Nations General Assembly Session 58 Resolution 214. A/RES/58/214 27 February 2003. Retrieved 26
August 2021.
United Nations General Assembly Session 67 Resolution 209. A/RES/67/209 12 March 2013. Retrieved 26
August 2021.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.