Supporting the EU response to environmental emergencies: European multiple environmental threats emergency network

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has mechanisms in place to support countries when an environmental emergency strikes and it deploys experts to assist the local community. These experts may find themselves in a chaotic situation, in which local and national authorities are overwhelmed. Collating the necessary evidence from scattered sources to conduct a robust risk assessment is a major challenge and deployed experts may not have access to the necessary technical expertise.Therefore, the European Multiple Environmental Threats Emergency Network (EMETNET) project is building a simple, efficient and robust methodology to enable the rapid risk assessment (RRA) of environmental emergencies. The RRA, which will be delivered to the European Commission (EC), presents an overview of potential and actual health and environmental impacts of the event. A network of risk assessors is being built to carry out this RRA and provide back-office support to deployed experts, enabling them to have rapid access to information and expertise. EMETNET builds on existing methodologies for the RRA of environmental emergencies, in particular, on a methodology developed for serious cross-border chemical health threats.The EMETNET methodology will support the selection of experts and assets deployed to affected regions and provide a snapshot assessment to experts en route to disaster zones. It will aid defensible decision-making, communication, planning and risk management. Furthermore, it will ensure a harmonised understanding of the associated health, environmental and cross-sectoral impacts of an environmental emergency.

Development of a Rapid Risk and Impact Assessment Tool to Enhance Response to Environmental Emergencies in the Early Stages of a Disaster: A Tool Developed by the European Multiple Environmental Threats Emergency NETwork (EMETNET) Project

“…A rapid risk assessment methodology was developed to provide a harmonized approach across the EU for the response to environmental emergencies, which focuses on the risks to public health and the environment (Hall et al 2017). The methodology was based on a rapid risk assessment methodology developed by the European Chemical Emergency Network (ECHEMNET) to support the implementation of the EU Decision (1082/2013/EU) (EC 2013) on serious cross-border threats to health (SCHEER 2017) and to assist with the response to a serious cross-border threat to health associated with a chemical agent or environmental event in the EU (SCHEER 2017).…”

“…Other risk and impact tools currently consider either health or the environment, while this rapid risk assessment (RRA) and impact assessment tool considers both health and environment together. This tool supports a harmonized understanding of the associated health, environmental, and cross-sectoral impacts of an environmental emergency (Hall et al 2017). This article describes the risk and impact Fig.…”

“…The European Union (EU) co-funded the European Multiple Environmental Threats emergency NETwork (EMETNET) project, which sought to develop and share a more efficient and rapid public health and environmental risk/impact assessment methodology, for use at the European level, primarily to support the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism (EUCPM) (European Parliament and Council 2013) and at the global community level to support the response to natural hazard-related and humanmade disasters (Hall et al 2017).…”

“…They enable the required expertise and information to be elicited from a multidisciplinary network of expert risk assessors across the field of disaster response and management. Such a networkwhich can gather virtually using collaborative software (Hall et al 2017)-removes geographical barriers for international response to supporting countries that are facing an environmental emergency in its early phase.…”

“…The outputs from the tool developed can be used to inform decision making at the earliest point by targeting and prioritizing risk and impact mitigation strategies to reduce the potential impacts to health and the environment (Hall et al 2017). This tool facilitates the selection of experts and assets to be deployed to affected regions and provides a snapshot assessment to experts on the way to disaster zones.…”