viadonau is faced with various threat scenarios. Examples are technical incidents in locks (e.g. fires or leakages of hazardous substances), blackouts, intentional incidents like cybercrime or extrotion and, of course, natural disasters like floods. In the event of such a crisis, the usual courses of action and decision-making procedures are often not sufficient to resolve the issue professionally, efficiently and as quickly as possible. It is thus crucial to be able to fall back on already prepared procedures and checklists in order to avoid mistakes. In 2008, a handbook for crisis communication was elaborated. In order to be in a position to manage crises professionally also on the operational level, the topic was taken up once again in 2016.
The internal process „Crisis Management“ and the necessary documentation were comprehensively revised in 2017. The "Handbook Emergency and Crisis Management" (for internal use) was also finalised in 2017. It defines terms, roles, responsibilities and duties as well as the organisational structures and procedures of the crisis management, etc.
By setting up the emergency and crisis management in viadonau, a new system was established which aims to maintain core processes and to perform the necessary (sovereign) tasks also under exceptional circumstances. In the event of a crisis, a temporary organisational structure will be activated, complementary to the already existing structure. This temporary organisational structure can pool the necessary resources, define additional responsibilities and competences and thus allow for swift decisions, according to the particular circumstances. The adapted process and the handbook should support the crisis management. Respective trainings and drills were conducted in 2017.
The project made a substantial contribution to the implementation of measure
22. Optimise and run flood-related operational command and control systems of the Action Programme for the Danube 2022.
