Summary:
The natural disaster is a rapid, instantaneous large (or small) collision of
the natural environment and the social - economic system of a country or a
region. Many define the phenomenon in more detail as "an event in space and
time that threatens the society or any part of it, with serious unintended
consequences which are the product of insufficient precautions, which until
then was regarded as adequate."
Most natural disasters can not be predicted, so as to create a framework of
deterrence. But the consequences can be estimated accurately, thus allowing
creation and effective measures that will help shield and protect the local
population and infrastructure.
The assessment of damage caused by a disaster varies, as the small-scale
disasters, can cause small losses (damage) where in the space out there,
valuable items or structures that have great social and economic value, do not
exist.
The intensity of a disaster is determined by the size of the losses related
to life, health and property of citizens, goods, productive resources,
infrastructure and cultural heritage of a place.
In this study we tried to investigate the modern concept of Civil Protection,
first in the European Union and then more specifically in Greece. We attempted
an institutional review of the European Union (EU), which is acting, on the
basis of the subsidiarity principle, to provide emergency humanitarian aid to
victims of natural and man-made disasters around the world while parallel has
officially takes the firm commitment to assist wherever necessary. I we take
in mind and funds provided by the individual European Union (EU) countries, the
EU is positioned as the largest humanitarian aid donor in the world.
In Greece, the first attempt to create Civil Protection organization
mechanism was after the events of Cyprus (July 1974). According to the Act on
the mission of Emergency Civil Planning Needs, besides the design and planning
of the organization for the preparation and mobilization of Forces Civil
(aiming for survival in war and the contribution to the National Defense) added
by the government, all the needs of the population, which exist in peace.
Providing direction and coordination exercised by the Ministry of Defense.
Twenty one years later in 1995 it introduced into legislation (by Law 2344) on
"Civil Protection Organization". The new law sets up, in the Ministry of
Interior Public Administration and Decentralization, the General Secretariat
for Civil Protection, which has a mission, to plan, organize and coordinate the
policy of the country, in matters relating to the prevention, notification and
response to natural, technological or other disasters.
Focusing on a sensitive area of cultural heritage of historical
Administration buildings of higher educational institutions, the protection of
our cultural heritage, achieved with the previous legislation, which had been
the object of intense criticism of the ambiguities, gaps and contradictions
which contained. In the previous legislation, the protection of monuments
depended restrictions and prohibitions, while criticized for the weakness that
possessed, with time, to adapt to new social realities and modern concepts, so
it can not take advantage of the opportunities created by technological
progress and the development of research. It is also worth noting that “in case
the lack of systematic coding leads to conflicting decisions resulting, from
legal uncertainty prevails."
All these reasons have created the need for the existence of a single
systematic legislation, more adapted to the demands of the new era, with the
aim of adequate protection of our cultural heritage.
Studying the most historical building of the largest University of the country,
under a self rule of administration, defined by the Greek Constitution, we
found that the existence of effective and efficient management of staff
resources and university infrastructure, the safety and health is an obvious
prerequisite. The State is now considered to have the legal obligation to
guarantee security conditions to citizens such as to enable them to have
uninterrupted enjoyment of some of their basic commodities, such as life,
physical integrity and property, protected by third insults (for example
insults from organs of the State).
The same legal obligation has the higher educational institution, within its
organization. We examined problems arising from administrative relations
developed through the existing legislation, while we proposed the creation of
Civil Protection Commission at National & Capodistrian University of Athens,
within the constitutional framework of self rule administration. We realized
that in order to achieve the objectives of safety rules and by extension of
civil protection, in all working and academic areas, the rules must have
necessarily demonstrated (and also become clear in their principles), to all
academic and administrative units constitutively active in University Community.
The creation of a system for emergency response is not a simple matter. In
the substance the goal of all of this, is to allow the design and system
application for emergency response, covering every aspect of the problem, so
the result is the protection provided for workers and other persons at working
and other spaces of buildings, especially the maintenance of them. Starting
with the flagship of them, which is the Central Administration Building
(Propyleon) of the National & Capodistrian University of Athens.
The aim of our proposal is to occur collaborative processes in order to help
implement protection policy rules for listed buildings of N. C. U. A., with the
creation of an inflexible hierarchical relationship to the structure of
interposition teams. Thoroughly we studied the law of listed buildings,
discovering interference problems in the Central Administration Building of the
larger and most historic University of the country.
We proceeded to the analysis of the concepts of risk and vulnerability,
taking into account all those factors that affect the strength and resilience
of a system. At the same time we analyzed the risk of the main building
(Propyleon) and the vulnerability with an inquiry conducted on the spot.
The rules for Civil Protection must be the consolidation of risk and
education to address them, specially in buildings symbols of our cultural
heritage, such as the Central Administration Building (Propyleon). It is by a
host of risks that are not only limited wartime. The existence of extreme
weather phenomena, air pollution, due to vehicular traffic or explosions and
vibration hazards prominent damage and fire during squatting, possible
terrorism (nowadays, there is a specific target to Western countries culture
from groups or organizations that profess religious or other kind of political
totalitarianism, aimed at conducting psychological warfare) in peacetime, are
some of the risks that both the university and the state authorities has to
be managed. Finally we recorded the findings that emerged from our researches,
while created an Emergency Response Plan Statement, which aspire to be adopted
by the Rector of the University of Athens as a pilot project.
It is likelihood that an emergency situation exists in the particular
building, because of the symbolism – the cultural and the social symbolism -
which, the building has in Greek society historical. Additionally, natural or
other events may cause the emergency, which will have to manage properly and
effectively by the competent bodies of the Foundation. Also recorded in this
project (apart from the risks likely to be at both the operating system of the
building and the building itself), the minimum of actions must be taken, by the
staff and especially some of the interposition groups.
