ERRIS project team members Mr Nilanjan Paul and Mr Debanjan Bandyopadhyay participated in a month long training program at the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), a premier institute in Geographical Informational Systems sciences in the world and also a partner to the ERRIS project.

The training comprised of a 3 week standardized module on Risk Assessment and 4 days of knowledge transfer and interactions customized to the requirement of the project. ITC Senior Project Officer Mr John Horn was the coordinator for the capacity building exercise and Prof. Cees Van Western was faculty in charge of the overall program.

During the program, the participants had the opportunity to gain first hand knowledge on various aspects pertaining to the application of GIS technology to the field of disaster management and in the design and development of emergency response plans. The 3 week module covered subjects like use of digitized maps for prediction of risk arising of industrial and natural disasters, assessing vulnerability of the elements at risk including buildings critical facilities, population, economic activities, etc. exposed to a hazard, and finally the evaluation of risk using various accepted methodologies. The customized module involved interactions and sharing of experiences with experts who have handled similar assignments. During these sessions, various issues related to the implementation of ERRIS were discussed in Detail.

The program consisted of a combination of classroom teaching and hands-on exercises, which helped the participants, understand the use of GIS tools and techniques for managing risks. At the end of the module, course participants prepared a short literature and made a case-study presentation on their subjects of specialization for course evaluation purpose. Following this the participants were taken on a two-day excursion to the polder regions of Netherlands to understand the use of GIS for flood risk assessment.

As part of the capacity building program of the ERRIS project , a team comprising of Mr Nazeeb Arif, Project Director and Ms Nandini Basu, Community and Stakeholder Participation Specialist, ERRIS along with the CEOs of the local partner organizations for the ERRIS Project, Haldia Development Authority and the Asansol Durgapur Development Authority went for a training and collaboration visit to institute for the Security and Protection of the Citizens (IPSC) in Ispra, Italy, ICC’s partners for the project, for the week 21-25 February, 2005.

The visit included collaboration and training on the following issues:
  - Training on the European legislative framework for control of
     industrial risks and the Seveso Directive.
  - Accident analysis and the use of the Major Accident Reporting
    System (MARS)
  - Hazardous plants register and the Seveso Plants Information Retrieval System (SPIRS)
  - Risk Assessment methods and Land-Use Planning.
  - Risk acceptability criteria.
  - Quantitative Area Risk Assessment with the ARIPAR software.
  - Emergency planning and management tools, such as HARIA-2, EPMS and SIMAGE.
  - Discussions with executives of the Lombardia Region (the industrialized area of Milano) on the implementation of the Directive,
    control of industrial risks and emergency management.

A detailed presentations was made by Dr Michalis Christou, Major Accident Hazards Bureau (MAHB) on the European Legislative Framework for the control of major accident hazards –the Seveso Directive. The basic aim of the Seveso Directive is the prevention of major accidents involving dangerous substances as well as the limitation of the consequences of accidents on man environment. It is aimed at achieving a high level of protection for man and the environment throughout the European Union. The philosophy of the Seveso II Directive looks at safe technology And safe management (demonstrate safety in the safety report) along with emergency planning and land use planning.

The visiting delegates were provided with an in depth understanding of the key functions of the MAHB. Some of them include:
  - Providing support to the legislation, in particular the Amendment of the Seveso II
  - Developing systems like the major accident reporting system, seve so plant information retrieval system
  - Forming technical working groups
  - Information exchange between national, local authorities, industry, academia and the general public
  - Enlargement activities
  - Mutual joint visits for inspectors
  - Research Projects

Detailed presentations on the MARS and SPIRS provided an understanding of similar information systems like the ERRIS which has been developed by IPSC to not only analyse causes of accidents and the lessons learnt but also to provide information on the plants covered by the SEVESO Directive and the substances used in various plants. The basic objective of the Major Accident Reporting System (MARS) is monitoring and documenting lessons learnt from accidents. This information system contains information on accidents supplied by Member states, analysis of causes of accidents, the lessons learnt and information about preventive measures. This system and its components build in a sense of involvement among operators and facilitates training. Over 600 accidents have been reported and built into the system.

The purpose of the Seveso Plants Information Retrieval System (SPIRS) which has been developed and managed by MAHB is to map major accident hazard establishments. It facilitates the monitoring of seveso plants and mapping of the relevant hazards/ risks. This system provides support in decision making for the European Commission as well as the EU Member Countries.

IPSC has also developed a Benchmarking Exercise on Area Risk Analysis using the ARIPAR system (Area Risk Assessment System) which does an aggregation of all risk sources associated with fixed installations and transportation of dangerous substances. This system enables the calculation and display of risks and hence leads to the identification of the major causes of risk in the area.

The natural and environmental disaster information exchange system (NEDIES) developed by the JRC constitutes a common European repository of lessons learnt from disasters. Its primary objective is to make available to the Civil Protection Services of the EU Member countries validated information on past disasters and main consequences, methods and techniques relevant for the prevention of disasters, preparedness and response. During the visit to IPSC, the team also interacted with Dr Gerald Vollmer, Head of Unit, Hazard Assessment Unit of IPSC and discussed the scope of the project and the areas of collaboration. The training course at IPSC was followed by a visit to the Lombardy Region where the visiting team met officials from the Environment Protection Department which was followed by a visit tthe Emergency Control Centre at Milan.