On March 22nd and 23rd, 2022, the first workshop in the KIRAS-funded B.PREPARED project – aimed at emergency planning and decision support system for accidents involving hazardous substances – took place in the premises of the Upper Austrian provincial fire brigade command in Linz. The aim of this workshop was to work on central issues of the work packages together with the entire project consortium and external stakeholders and thus to consolidate the basis of the project. The workshop was held in a hybrid form, which worked excellently thanks to the infrastructure of the venue.

After a presentation of the project for the project-external participants, the work on the project content started. The following four topics related to accidents involving hazardous substances were dealt with in the form of a World Café moderated by the DCNA:

• Requirements and acceptance
• Processes
• Existing systems
• Models and forecasts

After lunch, the participants were officially welcomed by the host, the Upper Austrian fire chief LBD Robert Mayer, MSc. This was followed by further technical input in the form of short presentations by the project partners Hexagon, ZAMG, and Chemiepark Linz, before work continued on the thematic areas mentioned above.

The evening program and the informal exchange of the project consortium took place in the Lentos Art Museum Linz and ended with a short city tour through Linz at night.

After a wrap-up of the previous day and the determination of the next steps, the workshop closed on March 23rd around midday. The next tasks in the project include the summary and processing of the results of the workshop and the development of a questionnaire, through which other users, especially emergency organizations and government representatives, are to be involved. Results from this survey are expected by the end of May and will be discussed at the next working meeting at the Joanneum Research premises in Graz.

Photo: Christian Derler, Bernhard Jandl-Scherf/JOANNEUM RESEARCH

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