Cluster Civic protection | Umweltbundesamt

On the relevance of the action field

Flood, heat, drought, pandemics and war – these severe events and their impacts have recently shaken Germany. In this context, progressive global warming has increasingly foregrounded natural hazards. In this country, meteorological changes have been increasing the risk of crisis situations due to weather and weather patterns. The findings of the 2022 World Risk Report²²⁷ are among the sources acknowledging these developments: According to this Report, the risk of disasters ensuing from natural hazards have increased continuously.

It is the core task of civic protection to safeguard the safety of citizens in the event of a disaster. Germany commands an effective integrated emergency relief system which has been tried, tested and proven its worth: Organisations at Federal, Länder and municipality levels as well as private emergency services cooperate closely in order to assist humans effectively in emergencies, to keep losses at a minimum, to remedy damage to the best of their abilities and to put humans on their guard in respect of impending danger situations. One of the supporting pillars of civic protection is the great number of voluntary helpers who become involved in public and private relief organisations.

Nevertheless, disaster preparedness and management are confronted by the increasing challenges of climate change. The existing structures are being updated continuously so that civic protection can fulfil its tasks faced by the portents of climate change. The challenge is to adapt the existing resources to the increasing disaster risk, to optimise coordination and organisation, and to accelerate the implementation of effective preventive measures.

DAS Monitoring – what is happening due to climate change

In many places the organisations and voluntary helpers active in the field of civic protection are signalling that the number of call-outs due to weather events and weather patterns is on the increase, although currently – in view of the heterogeneous recording of call-outs – it is not possible to provide the relevant quantitative evidence for the entire Federal Republic. In particular, extreme weather events seem to require the deployment of civic protection crews more and more frequently. The deployment situation seems to be characterised especially by flooding events. Evidence for a close correlation between individual extreme weather events and extraordinarily high peaks of strain on volunteers is documented in the form of data recorded by the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) (cf. Indicator BS-I-1). In July 2021 violent rainfall events led to massive flooding, especially in western Germany. It was in the valleys of the Ahr and Erft rivers in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia where one of the most severe flood disasters in the history of the Federal Republic occurred. The momentous scale of the Ahr valley flood was partly due to the fact that it occurred so very suddenly. Many people affected were caught unawares by the water masses and unable to take the necessary precautions for their own protection. In that year the THW recorded call-out figures amounting to 15,500 emergency relief responders from all THW emergency relief associations – the highest ever in the history of the organisation.²²⁸ The more frequent and more intensive weather-related and weather-pattern related extremes arising from climate change are always reflected in new peaks of strain imposed on emergency relief members of organisations actively involved in civic protection. In addition, it has to be borne in mind that the operating capacity of volunteers can suffer from impacts on their own health due to climatic changes such as increasing heat. Furthermore, individuals may be affected themselves in terms of their premises or their private sphere thus in turn restricting the operational capacity of the organisations concerned. In order to ensure the availability of sufficient capacity in cases of call-outs, it is becoming increasingly important to redouble recruitment efforts and to ensure the availability of both employees and voluntary helpers.

Future climate risks – outcomes of KWRA

Research carried out within the framework of the 2021 Climate Impact and Risk Analysis (KWRA) shows that climate change is escalating the risk of dangerous events occurring; the intensity and complexity of this risk represents an increasing challenge to the actors involved in civic protection. Extreme weather events such as, in particular, heavy precipitation can become stress tests for the emergency relief responders, in view of the fact that any resulting damage can take them to the limit of their capacity to fulfil the tasks they are faced with. Moreover, the structures of civic protection themselves can be threatened by such extreme events. Such cases where the structures of emergency services themselves are affected can involve damage to equipment and premises, blocked access roads, failure of power tools and communication channels; worse still – they can lead to absences of crew members owing to ill health.

Given that precautionary measures and emergency relief responses are in the foreground, the KWRA – contrary to its focus in other action fields – here places the main focus on the categorisation of an organisation’s capacity for adaptation. Consequently, there are opportunities, especially in facilitating, coordinating and optimising cooperation among various groups of actors such as fire brigades and rescue services, municipal authorities and infrastructure managers. Guidelines on adaptation measures or recommendations on how to behave in an emergency are apt to support the population in their endeavours to make their own best possible preparations for any future disaster scenarios. Greater compatibility among detection systems used nationwide and among recorded deployment data might contribute to the development of more effective adaptation measures on the basis of an improved data scenario.

Where do we have gaps in data and knowledge?

So far it has not been possible to achieve a methodical and comprehensive assessment at a national level with regard to the extent to which disaster situations caused by extreme weather events such as flooding or storm actually bind the emergency relief responders involved in civic protection. The DAS Monitoring Indicators for call-out and exercise scenarios are restricted by the extent of available THW data. The data provided are of an illustrative nature; in other words, they do not necessarily permit any conclusions in respect of the call-out figures incurred by other organisations. In future it would be desirable to incorporate data supplied by fire brigades and emergency relief organisations. Among these are the German Red Cross, the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund, the Deutsche Lebensrettungsgesellschaft, the Malteser Hilfsdienst and the Johanniter Unfallhilfe. However, given the decentralised organisational structure of the associations concerned which are subdivided into numerous, legally independent entities, there are currently no coordinated data sources available nationwide regarding the deployment figures of such organisations. This is also true with regard to fire brigades for which comparable inter-municipal regulations in respect of the recording of deployment figures exist only in exceptional cases. Furthermore, the majority of individuals involved have been recruited as volunteers, and there are limited time capacities available for establishing a statistically viable data collection on the basis of homogeneous criteria. A fundamentally changed data scenario is therefore unlikely to emerge in the future. Moreover, in order to provide a more detailed description of climate change impacts on civic protection and any potential requirement for measures, it would be desirable to have a documented record outlining to what extent the premises used by civic protection organisations themselves are affected by climate change impacts. To date the data required are either not available or available only from isolated surveys.

Surveys of the population’s awareness of natural hazards have only recently become the focus of interest. In the context of the development of the DAS monitoring indicator system, it became possible to gain insights into the hazard and prevention awareness of the German population by means of the environmental awareness studies conducted at regular intervals. However, as the surveys only started in 2012, the time series are currently still short. The reliability of the data is therefore limited and conclusions about future developments are only possible to a limited extent, if at all. With regard to civil protection and its further development, the environmental awareness studies also only provide a limited picture: for example, it is not possible to draw direct conclusions about the actual self-help capacity of citizens from their level of information, which depends not only on the level of information but also on the actual possibilities in the respective situation.

What’s being done – some examples

Given the increasing risk of weather-related and weather- pattern related disaster situations likely to entail increased strain on emergency relief responders, the organisations concerned are called upon to adapt their capacities and organisational structures to any new conditions evolving. A central building block is the recruitment of volunteers in order to secure an increasing or at least permanently stable pool of emergency relief responders. The increase in membership numbers is evidence of the intensified efforts to recruit more responders, at least as far as THW and fire brigades are concerned (cf. Indicator BS-R-4). There are nationwide campaigns intended to boost membership numbers in years to come, such as THW’s campaign launched in 2020 translated as ‘Your Time is NOW!’, and the BBK’s campaign for recruiting volunteers, launched in 2021, translated as ‘No matter what you can do – you can help’ and the accompanying establishment and operation of a web-based platform which is named ‘mit-dir-fuer-uns-alle.de’. Adverse circumstances such as the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic did not entail any marked decline in membership numbers. At the same time, the increase in major deployment events and their media coverage led to an increase in the public’s interest in becoming involved in civic protection. The new membership includes more and more female recruits, as well as migrant individuals and seniors.

New social and technical developments have been opening up new avenues in respect of civic protection, too. For example, during the flood events of 2013 and 2016 and during the flood disaster in the Ahr valley in mid-2021, thanks to social networks, emergency relief was organised quickly in many of the areas affected. In the light of Standard ISO 22319:2017 ‘Guidelines for planning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers (SVs)’^{229, 229} the conceptual framework for a coordinated incorporation of SVs is currently being further enhanced in cooperation with the deployment organisations and the Länder in order to make even more effective use of the existing willingness of volunteers – who are less interested to commit themselves to fixed structures than in the past – to get involved in providing emergency relief.

In addition, the practice of civic protection benefits from findings made in scientific research projects. Within the framework of the KlamEx project, the BBK and other partner authorities within the strategic alliance of authorities entitled ‘Adaptation to Climate Change’ analysed in what way extreme precipitation shapes and influences the deployment scenario, in what way impact factors determine the extent of damage and what kind of measures can support the risk preparedness for heavy rain in terms of civic protection and urban development. In this context, the comprehensive catalogues compiled by DWD of heavy rain events in Germany were included in the sources consulted. Going back as far as 2001 these catalogues provide valuable data on heavy and persistent rain and therefore play a part in supporting the follow-up analysis of extreme precipitation events.

With the aim to prepare their members for call-outs in the best possible way, civic protection organisations carry out regular exercises. These lay the foundation for appropriate action in extreme situations and for practising targeted crisis management. The data provided by THW demonstrate that even in years with extreme events, it is possible to carry out the requisite amount of training exercises adequately, both in terms of time and participants (cf. Indicator BS-R-3). This provides an important basis for the stability of civic protection, given that owing to climate change, it is possible that weather-related and weather-pattern related disaster events are likely to occur more frequently. According to the findings of KWRA 2021 there are adaptation potentials especially in respect of the funding, coordination and optimisation of cooperation among the variety of organisations active in civic protection. Emergency relief organisations active throughout the Federal Republic, but also fire brigades and the THW cooperate with public authorities such as the BBK, the UBA, the DWD or the BBSR on the objective to integrate their knowledge on climate change impacts and adaptation potential in the practice of civic protection. Besides, the organisations involved also reflect their own structures in this process while optimising their internal processes.

Apart from the work done by various organisations, the population’s ability to protect themselves is an important component of civic protection. The challenge is to sharpen citizens’ awareness that they should implement their own preventive and protective measures and, tailored to each target group, to enlighten the population on how to behave in a disaster scenario. The BBK’s nationwide information campaign translated as ‘Ready in case’ is one of the measures that serve this purpose. The findings of studies on environmental awareness indicate that the population’s awareness and sensibility are on the increase (cf. Indicators BS-R-1 and BS-R-2). In 2021 the proportion of respondents who felt sufficiently well informed about relevant risks from climate change impacts reached two thirds – the highest value yet. Moreover, there were more individuals than in previous years who stated that they would take precautionary measures of their own.

A comprehensive and reliable warnings infrastructure is an important building block in the scheme of the population’s self-protection. Digital warning apps such as NINA (Emergency Information and Warning App of the BBK) convey vital information to the public at times of disasters while the early warning system enables individuals in time to take the necessary precautions. The competent institutions are working continuously on improving and expanding these services. In February 2023, Cell Broadcast was taken into regular operation as a new warning system. This tool facilitates the cell-enabled broadcasting of warning messages straight to mobile phones or smartphones. Apart from digital solutions, permanently installed analogue sirens are part of Germany’s warnings infrastructure. They bridge gaps in cases when mobile technologies have become temporarily unavailable or have broken down. With its funding programme for sirens, the Federal government has been supporting since 2020 the installation of new sirens and the technical updating of existing installations.

^{227 - Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft 2022: WeltRisikoBericht 2022 – Fokus: Digitalisierung. Berlin, 75 S. https://weltrisikobericht.de.}

^{228 - BBK – Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe 2021: Pandemie und Hochwasserkatastrophe. Magazin Bevölkerungsschutz, 04/21. Bonn, 57 S. https://www.bbk.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Magazin-Bevoelkerungsschutz/Ausgaben/magazin-2021-4/magazin-4-2021_node.html.}

^{229 - ISO – International Organization for Standardization (Hg.) 2017: Security and resilience – Community resilience – Guidelines for planning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers. ISO 22319:2017, ICS: 03.100.01. https://www.iso.org/standard/66951.html.
229 - DIN – Deutsches Institut für Normung (Hg.) 2021: Sicherheit und Resilienz - Resilienz der Gesellschaft – Leitfaden für die Planung der Einbindung spontaner freiwilliger Helfer (ISO 22319:2017). DIN EN ISO 22319:2021-02 – Entwurf. https://www.beuth.de/de/norm-entwurf/din-en-iso-22319/332133296.}