D3.1 Initial catalogue of societal resilience solutions

Executive summary

The present deliverable entails a systematic description of an initial catalogue of solutions that ENGAGE has developed, and guidelines for creating content for the catalogue. Moreover, it provides a description of the approach and process towards the initial catalogue as well as directions for future work. Although the deliverable contains examples and snapshots from a database of solutions, the catalogue itself is embedded in an online repository. This repository is a component of the ENGAGE Knowledge Platform, which is developed in T5.5 and documented in D5.5. The first public release of the platform is planned for spring 2022.

In essence, the overall aim of ENGAGE is to link informal resilience inherent in society with the formal efforts of authorities and first responders, where “solutions” are means to achieve this goal. Solutions are here defined as any kind of mean or instrument to enhance the interaction between members of population and formal responders (first responders and authorities), e.g., technologies, tools, processes, guidelines, or practices. The objective of the final catalogue is to provide a knowledge repository describing such solutions with implementation guidance, including important factors of the local context where they have been implemented. Through the catalogue, the goal is to help first responders and authorities leveraging the potential of contributions from population.

The final catalogue will provide both a set of solutions that are presented with relevant basic information and a selection of these, which are in-depth characterized. The overall structure of the catalogue includes five main categories of information for a solution; (i) basic information, (ii) purpose and outcomes, (iii) lessons learned, (iv) guidelines, and (v) record management. These categories, and their subcategories, have emerged from a systematic process building upon and integrating the results from ENGAGE’s technical deliverables. Important factors for selecting and characterizing solutions have been discussed in internal and external workshops with end-users. To ensure a good process for in-depth characterization, a pilot of four solutions have been developed and carried out, as described in this deliverable.

A novelty of the catalogue is to provide contextual guidance to the users. ENGAGE acknowledges the situated and complex nature of societal resilience – and that building societal resilience cannot follow a “one-size-fits-all” recipe. Solutions successfully applied in one area or society might have specific aspects that heavily influences the implementation and use of said solutions. Therefore, in the catalogue, the guidelines and important factors for use and implementation of solutions include these contextual aspects, which enable users of the catalogue the possibility of a realistic judgment on the applicability to their own context.

The scope of the catalogue is to provide a pragmatic presentation of solutions, however, a more overarching discussion of contextual and target aspects of solutions is presented in this deliverable. This analysis provides a model of how a solution operates through contextual and target aspects to achieve an outcome. In the discussion it is pointed out that what is considered a contextual or target aspect will be dependent on the presumed degree of modifiability of the context. The contextual aspects influence the way solutions work on their target aspects. Moreover, solutions are assumed to contribute to diverse resilience potentials that subsequently may enable successful coping actions of a society in a crisis.

The validity of the final catalogue relies on developing in-depth content on mature solutions for the remainder of the project. To set the directions for this objective, guidelines for creating content for the catalogue is divided into three overarching processes, (a) selection and role allocation, (b) characterization, and (c) documentation. Furthermore, it provides detailed accounts on the who, the what and the how, when it comes to developing content for the catalogue. Adding to this, further work to develop the final catalogue include enhancing the basic information level, pursuing in-depth descriptions of several solutions, developing a common conceptual apparatus for the project, and validating the approach and content creation.