How crisis preparedness can strengthen critical societal functions

In the report "Civil defence towards 2030 – a balanced total defence", the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency estimates the annual cost of implementing the measures deemed necessary for Sweden's total defence at SEK 27 billion.

"These are very large investments, but there is a risk of incurring even greater costs if you have not invested in the right things when the crisis comes," says Lars Thell Marklund, PhD in soil and water engineering and researcher at RISE.

Preparations also useful in normal situations

An important part of preparation is to practise and learn more about your organisation, for example by securing your supply chains. In addition, working on crisis preparedness often leads to dialogue, discussion and cooperation between authorities. All these efforts help you to prepare the right measures for a yet unknown future crisis.

But preparation is also useful for other reasons.

"Investing in crisis preparedness also benefits us in everyday life, in what we might call normality. It builds robustness and resilience into society and its most critical functions – such as energy, water and sanitation, and healthcare infrastructure," says Elenor Bernelow Loyd, Vice President Total Defence at RISE.

Lars Thell Marklund:

"It is an opportunity to think multifunctionally – to design crisis measures in such a way that they benefit society even before the crisis occurs. It is also wise not to make all the investments at once, but to work with flexible measures, especially when there is a lot of uncertainty about the future. Once the forecasts have stabilised, the measures can be adjusted. A clear example of such an approach is the construction of sea-level rise defences."

Drinking water is crucial to civil protection

One of the most vulnerable areas is the supply of drinking water. As part of its offering, RISE conducts condition assessments for preventive measures in water management systems. This shows in practice how preparatory work to increase crisis preparedness can help communities and organisations to improve existing systems.

"Maintenance needs and unknown faults are often identified when crisis preparedness measures are taken, which means that the existing infrastructure is maintained at a good level," says Lars Thell Marklund.

He gives the example of leakage of drinking water - where it is known that on average 20% of Swedish drinking water leaks from the systems.

"The leakage is often due to leaks somewhere in the pipes. Improving the maintenance of water pipes as part of emergency preparedness often reduces these leaks. This results in increased efficiency and economic benefits for water producers, as well as environmental benefits in terms of less water being pumped.

But the benefits do not stop there.

In some regions, drinking water is scarce during droughts - so we lose a fifth of our available water to leakage. Meanwhile, we produce a lot of water 'unnecessarily' to cover the leakage, requiring larger treatment and pumping plants that use more resources than necessary.

"It is not uncommon for such facilities to produce a lot of carbon emissions. Improving maintenance reduces emissions and minimises the use of chemicals."

Crisis situations increase opportunities for policy change

The Mistra InfraMaint research programme, led by RISE, is running a project on how to change policies based on lessons learned from crises.

In 2011, Copenhagen was hit by a severe flood. Today, just over a decade later, the city is a world leader in flood management. Malmö was an early adopter in the same area, and now Gävle, which suffers periodically from severe flooding, is also investing.

"Another example is Skellefteå, a municipality we usually highlight when it comes to water and wastewater maintenance. In 2011, they had an outbreak of a parasite in their drinking water. The outbreak caused problems with stomach flu and forced consumers to boil their drinking water," says Lars Thell Marklund, and continues:

"The incident prompted Skellefteå Municipality to investigate how to prevent similar incidents from happening again by improving the maintenance of the water supply system. Since then, the municipality has realised other societal benefits from this type of continuous maintenance. For example, planned maintenance causes less disruption to citizens in the form of traffic diversions, water cuts and other problems. It is also possible to coordinate maintenance activities between different types of infrastructure, saving the municipality a lot of time and money."