Increasing self-awareness and self-protection in front of flooding risk in schools

During the 2011 Flash Flood in Genoa, four out of six casualties induced by this extreme event were related to schools. Since then, the Municipality of Genoa started a program to guarantee the safety of children in all the schools in its territory.

Therefore, within ANYWHERE project it has been developed the tool A4Schools to improve and speed-up the communications between schools, emergency managers and parents during an emergency situation. This tool (based on Telegram) has been specifically studied by a pool composed by schools representatives (schools directors, teachers and parents), decision makers of the Municipality of Genoa and researchers from CIMA Research Foundation.

A4Schools standardizes and improves the communication protocols between schools and emergency managers but it is able to provide customized information to the parents about the impact of the weather conditions in the schools all over the Municipality of Genoa city suggesting them the safer behavior to protect their children and themselves. In real time it will be known which are the schools affected by the event, the protocol followed by the schools to protect the children and that the children are safely cared by the school’s staff. Additionally, it will be supplied information about the safe roads in the affected area depending on the observed situation.

The 16th of May 2018 the Municipality of Genoa organized a full-scale exercise with the aim of testing the capabilities of schools in reacting to a flood alarm message and in following the operational protocols and the internal emergency plans. A4Schools was tested during this event and showed the capabilities of providing to the parents customized information about the situation of their children at school and, at the same time, to provide to the decision makers a complete picture of the safety level in each school.

This service will be included in the A4EU platform implemented for the Liguria region in Genoa city and it will be tested during the demonstration period in the Liguria pilot site starting from October 2018.