The first results obtained by the UB Center for Risk Studies in the European Project “Paratus”, partner in a program financed by EU – HORIZON 2021 programme

The University of Bucharest, through its Center for Risk Studies of the Faculty of Geography, has implemented and obtained the first results in the European Project “Paratus”, financed by the research and innovation HORIZON 2021 European Union program.

The University of Bucharest is an active partner is this international program and is a representative for Romania along partners from another 10 countries, including  universities, NGOs, research institutes, small and medium enterprises, local and regional authorities.

The main objective of “Paratus” is to develop a decisional support platform for the management of dynamic risks and systemic vulnerabilities which can generate multiple-risk disasters.

Bucharest is one of Europe’s most endangered capitals to earthquakes. Not only seismic hazard is at high levels, but also exposure and vulnerability, as the recent European Seismic Hazard and Risk Models but also national plans and strategies for seismic risk reduction shows. Bucharest was previously affected significantly by intermediate-depth earthquakes in the Vrancea seismic source, in 1802, 1838, 1940 or 1977 – with the last event being the most devastating yet. In the context of the times when these occurred, some lessons couldn’t be fully expressed and learnt.

Recently, with thoughts on preparing for what is to come and using new data and approaches related to multi-risk, the Paratus European Project team from the University of Bucharest (coordinated by Professor Iuliana Armas and represented by Dragoș Toma, Ph.D., and Assist. Professor Gabriela Osaci-Costache) started reevaluating the earthquake’s historical impact on Bucharest.

This time, the focus was on structuring the knowledge into impact chains that better explain, also visually, the links between different components (hazard, exposure, vulnerability, losses but also adaptation options), with regards to time and spatial dimensions. In order to differentiate between historical periods, two impact chains were created: for the period prior to 1900 (available here); and another for the 1940 and 1977 earthquakes (available here).

These impact chains prove to be of great importance for a synthetic understanding of the phenomenon and its impact on multiple societal levels. Beside the interest of stakeholders involved in risk management, these impact chains prove to be of great relevance for scientists, teachers and general audiences. That is why they were also included in the new version of the “Bucharest and Earthquakes” digital storymap. The impact chains are part of the Paratus Deliverable 1.1, along with impact chains for the other case-study areas. An impact chain for the current and foreseen situation is what comes next, incorporating the nowadays challenges and providing practical solutions for risk mitigation.

In the development of the impact chains, a key role was also played by the Paratus Bucharest Stakeholder Workshop, in which representatives of the Prefecture, Bucharest City Hall, Ministry of Development (Operative Centre for Emergency Situations), Ministry of National Defense/ National Military Command Centre/ General Directorate for Emergency Situations (Operative Centre for Emergency Situations), Department of Emergency Situations, Police and Gendarmerie participated.

The members of the UB research team shared that “We hope that this approach and the instruments developed within the Paratus Project will increase awareness regarding seismic risks in Bucharest, as well as improving the general population’s level on how to prepare for a very likely emergency situation”.

More details about the project are available here and here.