An exercise in the Civil Protection Operations Room to explain to high school students how an earthquake emergency is handled

Inspired by the constructive experiences acquired during the past years with high school students (e.g. Peresan et al, 2023 and references therein) the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS), in collaboration with the Civil Protection of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region (PCFVG) developed a new educational project on seismic risk awareness, prevention and mitigation. The students from a high school in Northeastern Italy, were mainly involved in communication activities, training and the development of a culture of civil protection and risk awareness, as well as self-protection measures to be taken in the event of a crisis.

The project was coordinated by OGS staff and an official from Regional Civil Protection. The involvement of these two bodies was essential in the event of an earthquake occurring in the Region: the OGS provides real-time earthquake parameters (epicentre, magnitude and ground shaking), while the Civil Protection has the task of coordinating the emergency management (including services and bodies responsible for maintaining roads and buildings).

The exercise in the operations room was especially  useful for students  to understand the most important aspects to consider in an emergency, how priorities are handled and how the decisions made by the decision makers are communicated. This type of exercise showed that actively involving students is the right way to teach them about complex issues (earthquakes) and turn them into active citizens. In fact, after this experience, two students signed up for their community's disaster response team.

Peresan A. et al, 2023. Earth Sci. Syst. Soc., 22 August 2023, https://doi.org/10.3389/esss.2023.10088