Civil Protection Department

Augustus planning method

• A simple and flexible tool for planning an emergency at different territorial levels of competence. The name comes from the idea of Emperor Octavian Augustus that “the value of planning is reduced in proportion to the complexity of the state of things”.

European civil protection modules

• European civil protection modules are composed, on a voluntary basis, by Member States of the Union.
  They are part of the civil protection response, as requested by the European Council and Parliament following the tsunami disaster in South-East Asia. There are currently 17 modules about: purification and water pumping; AIB campagign, wood fire-fighting with aeroplanes and helicopters; Usar teams urban search and rescue, also in caseof Nbcr - Nuclear biological chemical radiological - risk; medical assistance and evacuation; field hospitals; fields; Nbcr survey and sampling.

Geodetic monitoring

• Control with a geodetic network that has the task of monitoring tectonic deformations (in other words of the earth’s crust), movements and deformation of the ground associated with the most intense seismic events. Monitoring also promotes development of knowledge about the tectonic processes that cause seismic activity.

Implementation of safety measures in an emergency

• Operations, even temporary, aimed at reducing risk in a certain environment and carried out promptly in the event of an emergency, with the primary goal of safeguarding human life.

Integrated model

• Prior identification of operations centres and emergency areas in the areas involved in emergency planning.

Intervention model

• Organisation by the civil protection system of the response to the emergency at the different levels of responsibility, also through the planning and activation of operations centres in the territory.

Intervention module

• Structure composed by men and means with a specific function, that can be activated by constitution of the intervention device.

Macroseismology

• A branch of seismology that studies the effects of earthquakes on the territory, in particular in the anthropologic context: built-up areas, individual buildings and people. The information is gathered both using “direct” macroseismic methods and also using “indirect” tools like telephone calls, the sending out of special questionnaires to authorities and to the people in the areas involved, etc. The information is translated into a “macroseismic observation” that allows an intensity value from the MCS (Mercalli Cancani Sieberg) macroseismic scale to be attributed to the areas involved.

Magma

• Natural substance with a high temperature, which represents a heterogeneous system containing a prevalent liquid phase, a solid mineral phase and a gas phase in variable quantities. Magma is formed when the temperature and pressure conditions in the earth’s mantle or crust reach lead to partial fusion of the rocks. When magma reaches the earth’s surface it is called lava.

Magnitude

• The measurement of the energy liberated by an earthquake at his ipocentre. It is calculated starting from the amplitude of the seismic waves recorded by the seismograph, and it is given on a logarithmic scale of values of the energy recorded, called the Richter Scale. Each point of magnitude corresponds to an increase of around 30 times the energy: the energy developed by an earthquake of magnitude 6 is around 30 times greater than that produced by one of magnitude 5 and around 1000 times greater than that produced by an earthquake of magnitude 4.

Mainshock

• The strongest shock during a seismic period or sequence.

The European Civil Protection Mechanism

• The European Civil Protection Mechanism is a strategy of the European Union to promptly respond to emergencies that may occur in territories inside or outside the European Union, through the share of resources in all the member countries. All the initiatives are based on the principle of subsidiarity, according to which all actions by the European Union must be undertaken in coordination and upon request of the emergency struck country. The Mechanism is managed by DG ECHO of the European Commission and the emergencies are dealt with by using european civil protection modules.  

   

   

Permanent Safety Measures

• Any intervention to limit or permanently insulate the polluting source from the surrounding environment.

MIC - Monitoring Information Centre

• 24 hour active centre that represents the operating component of the European Civil Protection Mechanism and lies in the Civil Protection Unit of the General Direction of Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection. It provides countries with the access to a community platform of civil protection, where requests from EU or non-EU countries hit by a calamity and help offers of Member States are collected.

Microtremors

• Small amplitude seismic waves that originated from natural or man-made local sources, like sea waves, the wind, small earth movements, traffic, etc. The contribution of sources deep underground is negligible. (also see noise analysis).

Seismic microzonation

• SDivision of a territory on municipal scale into areas with homogeneous behaviour from a local seismic response profile, taking into consideration geological, geomorphological, and hydrogeological conditions able to produce amplification phenomena of the seismic signal and/or permanent deformation of the ground (landslides, liquefaction, compaction and settling).

Monitoring

• Constant observation of an event that has already happened or that could happen. Divided into:
  
  - Environmental monitoring: control with detection and measurement over time of certain bio-chemical-physical parameters that characterise the environment:
  - Instrumental monitoring: control with detection and measurement over time of certain chemical-physical-mechanical parameters, using recording receivers, such as seismographs.