Civil security in everyday life

Prof Fiedrich and the Chair of Civil Protection, Disaster Relief and Property Security

The former barracks building in the Wuppertal Technology Centre, known as W-tec for short, is bathed in morning sunshine. Manicured lawns, birdsong and even a fountain greet visitors in an almost idyllic setting. The third floor is not where you would expect to find the Chair of Civil Protection, Disaster Relief and Property Security. Prof Dr Frank Fiedrich has been working here as Chair holder since 2009 and currently has two permanent research assistants, seven project staff and several student assistants.

Security has taken on a new meaning since 11 September

In conversation with him and his colleague, Dr Tim Lukas, it quickly becomes clear that there can be no such thing as absolute security, "because otherwise you would be living in a padded cell." And yet the security aspect is a factor that is becoming increasingly important to the population.

The industrial engineering graduate has been working in the field of security for 25 years. Initially, this new branch of science was not taken very seriously. It was not until 11 September 2001, when a terrorist attack brought down the World Trade Center, that society began to take a turn towards serious recognition of his field of research. It was then at the latest that everyone realised how important civil security is in everyday life.

Two main hazard categories

Disasters continued to occur around the world in the years that followed, from the Love Parade disaster in Duisburg in 2010 to the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti in the same year and the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima in 2011. And this is where the professor begins to specify. The hazard categories can be roughly divided into natural hazards, such as earthquakes or heavy rainfall, and man-made hazards, such as climate change, pandemics, industrial accidents or even wars.

As extensive as the range of hazards is, the experience of recent years has made it possible to develop protection concepts and preventive measures for people for many problems, which are effective at national and international level. Fiedrich also repeatedly emphasises the interdisciplinary work of his department, as specialists from several disciplines are involved.

Interdisciplinarity

Dr Tim Lukas, his closest colleague, is a good example of this interdisciplinarity, i.e. the use of approaches, ways of thinking and methods from different disciplines. The sociologist and experienced criminologist played a leading role in the recently completed VERSS project - Aspects of a fair distribution of security in the city.

VERSS is essentially concerned with confidence-building as an important parameter for establishing and guaranteeing security. This also involves the so-called fear areas, of which there are 33 in the entire city of Wuppertal. These are public places that are avoided by the population because they believe they are more likely to fall victim to a crime there. As the call for more police and protective measures quickly becomes loud, the chair, together with the project partners and students from the University of Wuppertal, has considered and developed other, more social alternatives. In co-operation with the city, the police and with the participation of citizens, surprising alternatives were found. This resulted in ideas for improving lighting conditions in dark places or for planning neighbourhood festivals to give the anonymous homeless an identity, hear their story and thus feel less threatened. With these measures, the organisers are also directly involved in the third mission, the third social pillar of the university.

In Wuppertal, these measures, among others, can make areas such as the Wichlinghausen neighbourhood more attractive and naturally safe for citizens.

Now Wuppertal is a long way from earthquakes or tsunamis, but climate change is also knocking on the doors of North Rhine-Westphalia. Fiedrich recalls the heavy rainfall of the century in Münster in 2014 or the torrential rainfall in Berlin at the end of June this year. Wuppertal, with its hillside and valley locations, also needs protection concepts in this case. The most important thing here is to be able to provide help quickly. Co-operation with the fire brigade, police and authorities is going well and plans for what needs to be done in the next two to four hours can be implemented quickly. The deployment of spontaneous helpers is also taken into consideration.

Spontaneous helpers via social media

The new social media can be put to good use for this purpose. Prof Fiedrich cites an Austrian example of refugee aid. There, the Red Cross and the radio station Hitradio Ö3 have joined forces in "Team Austria". Every volunteer who registers via the associated website directly provides a few of their qualifications and their mobile phone number, which enables immediate and meaningful involvement by the organisation team.

The industrial engineer is also in charge of another international project: INCA (Improving Crossborder Area Resilience to Disasters). In collaboration with French and German partners, this research project is also investigating the involvement of spontaneous helpers.

"As helpers, we are well connected"

So are the Germans well connected? Fiedrich explains that he considers the networking of German helpers in the national and international arena to be good. Nevertheless, there is still a lot to be done in the area of inter-organisational cooperation. In future, coordination centres will have to be created and new scenarios will have to be thought through again and again with joint simulation games.

Under Professor Fiedrich's leadership, the book "Introduction to Civil Protection" will soon be published, in which he describes the structures, organisations and processes of disaster and civil protection in selected scenarios. In addition to the related topics of disaster and crisis management, the book also deals with the area of international disaster relief.

And where is the science in all this organisation? Fiedrich makes it clear that the organisation of emergency response is only possible with good, scientific groundwork. How do organisations work? How do they structure themselves? How are decisions made in time-critical situations? How is better co-operation achieved? These are just some of the questions being investigated at the Chair.

"Everything is evolving, the disciplines are growing together," says Fiedrich, and the possible applications for security engineers are becoming both more diverse and more numerous. Companies and institutions are attaching more and more importance to security and are now prepared to pay for it.

On his way out, he notices the many moving boxes in the corridor. Oh yes, there was something else! The department is moving to the new building on Grifflenberg this summer.

That, at least, is absolutely certain!

Uwe Blass (interview from 30/06/2017)

After studying industrial engineering, Professor Fiedrich completed his doctorate at the TH Karlsruhe. There he worked in the special research centre "Strong Earthquakes" and in the research training group "Natural Disasters".
Before moving to Wuppertal, Professor Fiedrich worked for four years at the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University in Washington, DC. Among other things, he carried out research projects for the US Disaster Management Agency on emergency supplies for the affected population following major disasters.