Digitalization in hazard prevention

Four driving factors are having an increasing impact on the operating conditions of agencies and organizations with civil security tasks (BOS) such as the police, fire department, and emergency response and rescue services:

1. Social and demographic trends

The shift in population age structure, the trend toward urbanization, increasing linguistic and cultural diversity and the rise in the number of single households are ushering in lasting change in living and housing conditions in Germany. This has far-reaching consequences for hazard prevention and deterrence. Demographic developments also present civil protection authorities with major challenges when it comes to recruiting personnel.

2. Technological trends

Advancing technology and the interconnectedness of our living and working environments not only generates many benefits, but also brings about changes in operational risks (e.g. new drives and energy sources in mobility) and new targets for crime (e.g. cybercrime). At the same time security and safety organizations are also acquiring enhanced capabilities. These include sensor-based data collection, rapid processing of disparate mass data, and technical tools such as drones and new scanner technologies.

3. Environmental factors/climate

Due to climatic changes in Europe and around the world, extreme weather situations are becoming ever more common. Experts assume that in the future, such phenomena will occur periodically and thus have an impact on various prevention and crisis management measures. Emergency services must anticipate new scenarios and develop their capabilities accordingly.

4. Nature and extent of damage

Another formative factor is the qualitative shift toward large-scale incidents and protracted crisis situations. Triggers may include the climate changes already mentioned, pandemics, events with extremely large numbers of participants, and terrorist attacks. In such scenarios, casualties and extensive damage to infrastructure are likely.