www.jrc.ec.europa.eu Contact Elisabeth Krausmann, Ph.D. European Commission, Joint Research Centre Critical Infrastructure Protection Via E. Fermi, 2749 I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy Tel.: 0039-0332-789612 E-mail: [email protected] NATECH Accidents When natural disasters trigger technological accidents © European Union 2012 Status of Natech risk reduction in the EU and OECD Natech research activities: present and future Objective: Support the industry and the Member States in the identification and reduction of Natech risk. • Legislation and codes for chemical accident preven- tion rarely address Natech risk. • There is little knowledge on the dynamics of Natechs. • There are hardly any meth- odologies and tools for Nat- ech risk assessment. • There is no guidance for in- dustry on how to assess Nat- ech risk. • There are only few best practices for Natech risk re- duction. • Emergency response plans do not consider the charac- teristics of Natech accidents (loss of utilities). • There are no Natech risk maps to identify areas in danger. • The situation is aggravated by the expected increase of Natech risk due to climate change and the increasing vulnerability of our society. • We work to improve this sit- uation in collaboration with EU Member States, OECD, UN and academia. • Accident analysis to identify vulnerable equipment, dam- age modes and accident sce- narios. • Development of methodolo- gies and tools for Natech risk assessment and mapping, e.g. equipment vulnerability mod- els, damage scale for event characterization, RAPID-N, etc. • Risk assessment to determine Natech risk level. • Development of recommenda- tions and guidelines for Nat- ech risk reduction. • Generation of lessons learned and dissemination. What is a Natech accident? A Natech accident is a technological accident trig- gered by a natural event, such as earthquakes, floods, storms, lightning, landslides, etc. In this context technological accident is understood as: • Damage to and hazardous-materials release from fixed chemical plants. • Damage to and hazardous-materials release from oil and gas pipelines. Why are Natech accidents problematic? • Natural disasters can trigger simultaneous releases from single or multiple sources. • Lifelines needed for disaster mitigation are likely to be un- available. • Simultaneous emergency response efforts are required to cope with both the natural disaster and the technological accident. • Standard civil protection measures may not be functional or appropriate. • Safety and mitigation measures are usually not assessed for Natech accidents. At least 50% of surveyed EU Member States and OECD Member Countries have experienced one or more Natech accidents, sometimes with fatalities and injuries, environmental and/or economic damage. Earthquake, Turkey, 1999 Floods, Czech Republic, 2002