NATECH Accidents When natural disasters trigger technological accidents

What is a Natech accident? Why are Natech accidents problematic? A Natech accident is a technological accident trig- • Natural disasters can trigger simultaneous releases from gered by a natural event, such as earthquakes, single or multiple sources. floods, storms, lightning, landslides, etc. • Lifelines needed for disaster mitigation are likely to be un- In this context technological accident is available. understood as: • Simultaneous emergency response efforts are required to cope • Damage to and hazardous-materials release from with both the natural disaster and the technological accident. fixed chemical plants. • Standard civil protection measures may not be functional or appropriate. • Damage to and hazardous-materials release from oil and gas pipelines. • 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

Status of Natech risk reduction in the EU and OECD Natech research activities: present and future

• Legislation and codes for • Emergency response plans Objective:  Support the industry and the Member States in the chemical accident preven- do not consider the charac- identification and reduction of Natech risk. tion rarely address Natech teristics of Natech accidents • Accident analysis to identify • Development of methodolo- risk. (loss of utilities). vulnerable equipment, dam- gies and tools for Natech risk • There is little knowledge on • There are no Natech risk age modes and accident sce- assessment and mapping, e.g. narios. equipment vulnerability mod- the dynamics of Natechs. maps to identify areas in els, damage scale for event danger. • There are hardly any meth- characterization, RAPID-N, etc. odologies and tools for Nat- • The situation is aggravated • Risk assessment to determine ech risk assessment. by the expected increase of Natech risk level. Natech risk due to climate • There is no guidance for in- change and the increasing dustry on how to assess Nat- vulnerability of our society. ech risk. • We work to improve this sit- • There are only few best uation in collaboration with practices for Natech risk re- EU Member States, OECD, duction. UN and academia. • Development of recommenda- tions and guidelines for Nat- ech risk reduction. Contact

Elisabeth Krausmann, Ph.D. • Generation of lessons learned European Commission, Joint Research Centre and dissemination. Critical Infrastructure Protection Via E. Fermi, 2749 I-21027 Ispra (VA), Italy Tel.: 0039-0332-789612 © European Union 2012 © European E-mail: [email protected] www.jrc.ec.europa.eu