GNGTS 2014 - Atti del 33° Convegno Nazionale

divided into three groups. Their assignment was to write a lessons learned report using both the framework and the prototype of the ELITE living document6. A visible scenario surfaced, namely Japan’s earthquake followed by a tsunami as a domino effect in 2011. The CoP was supposed to (i) use this scenario as a starting point for the reporting exercise, (ii) access the living document and (iii) use sources/documents from the living document when writing the lessons learned report. After the workshop a questionnaire was distributed among the members of the CoP in order to evaluate the holistic framework. Based on the findings from the “post-it” exercises and the validation session, a holistic framework for lessons learned has been developed. It has been an iterative process. The aim has been to (i) identify and categorize common problems within each phase (pre-during and post-) in a specific crisis, subsequently (ii) identify and categorize common problems against disaster types in all phases, (iii) validate and test a preliminary holistic framework, and eventually present the final holistic framework. It takes into account common problems and hazards in all phases. Eight topics have been proposed as the main categories. Knowledge includes awareness and learning. Prevention merges the topics of preparation, trainingandeducation. Crosscuttingcategories havebeen identified; communication, knowledge, coordination and decision-making and logistics. Coordination and decision-making incorporates the topic of management. Some categories, prevention, interoperability and recovery, can be regarded of utmost importance in certain phases. The holistic framework, as well as the crisis specific frameworks provide first responders and other crisis managers with systematic help in identifying and reporting lessons learned. So, we recommend that the holistic framework developed in the ELITE project be used as guidelines for lessons learned in contingency and emergency planning. It is especially relevant when connecting lessons identified in the post-crisis phase with lessons learned and implemented in the pre-crisis phase. Providing a trusted environment. The key success factors of the learning and sharing process are more social than technical. The community needs a trusted environment to learn and share effectively, and the ELITE project has succeeded in this respect by building a seminal community that could launch the learning and sharing process and help to bring together disparate stakeholders into a tight-knit community. Two main limitations to the learning and sharing process are confidentiality and public recognition of mistakes. There is some information that should stay confidential, and the community should ensure that publicly shared information does not include confidential data. In addition, lessons learned should be written in a positive style, as the objective of their publication is learning and not pursuing potential responsible agents of past mistakes. In the end, it will be up to those within the ELITE community to ensure that the web tool remains active and displays the most pertinent information in an organised and clear manner. The only valuable approach is “from practitioners to practitioners through practitioners”, and it is thus the community itself that is the only entity capable of ensuring that the tools developed within the ELITE project remain useful to all involved. Looking to the future. The final conference, titled “ELITE International Scientific Conference on best practices and lessons learned from natural disasters” was focused on four topics. These were the main challenges and problems in natural disasters, management issues during preparation, response and recovery, learning from crisis to crisis, and finally establishing effective communication channels and avoiding breakdown in communication. Technology is currently highly efficient at collecting data, but processing this data into knowledge that can be transferred to others is still a human process. There is a significant amount of technology that supports capturing and sharing real time information about the evolution of a crisis, but developing critical reports on what was done to improve future preparation and response should still be done by knowledgeable people. The ELITE project is not only about GNGTS 2014 S essione 2.3 399