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The health care services offered by the public authorities and/or private providers play an important role in reducing the individual risk of serious illness or death. Through these functions, medical and health care service providers (general hospitals) protect the community social capital against losses of human life, severe sickness and disability.

We expect natural or man-made disasters and global crises to become more frequent, especially as climate change is creating more unpredictable future scenarios, making communities around the world vulnerable to the impact of different disasters. As a response, great efforts are made to develop modern tools to help build resilience. Within the BuildERS project, the potential of using mobile positioning data (MPD) for disaster management is being explored.

The Horizon 2020 programme priorities reflected on prime societal challenges faced by the global community.

The evident frequency of events requires the development of a Civil Protection model which institutionally involves school as an active factor directly interested in a social growth process.

In the years 2002, 2006, and 2013 the Elbe region, particularly within the area of the German federal state of Saxony, was hit by devastating floods.

When the Earth stops shaking, the survivors begin their journey back to lost normality. This blog will present an analysis focused on the post-earthquake emergency phase's psychological implications in the elderly, adolescents, and children populations.

There is a saying in Finland claiming that an accident does not come with a bell on its neck, but with mobile phones and the possibility to send real-time, localized alerts to people in the affected area, the impact of emergencies may be reduced significantly. 

COVID-19 has brought truly unprecedented times that no one could foresee. Overnight, the world as we knew it, changed! As the coronavirus started to spread and jump, many who were travelling abroad quickly reshuffled their plans to return home to family members and loved ones.

People receive and share information with other like-minded individuals. They do it intentionally and with the encouragement of technology, like search engines and cookies. Some even claim, that we live in “information bubbles”.

Events like the COVID-19 pandemic or the cyclone Amphan hitting India and Bangladesh in May 2020, as the most recent extreme weather events, regularly spur a discussion which revolves around the terms vulnerability, risk groups and resilience. The research project BuildERS took up this debate, since it aims to increase the resilience of European communities.

Who is vulnerable?

When we think about which people are vulnerable during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, the most vulnerable seem to clearly be groups such as the elderly and immunocompromised. While it is undoubtedly true that these groups suffer disproportionately from the effects of COVID-19, there are other groups that have experienced extreme hardship during the crisis who have not been adequately considered in emergency planning and response.