From May 11 to 13, both parties of the China-EU emergency management project conducted a comprehensive panoramic drill in Shanghai Chemical Industry Park. Provost MEI Lihong of Shanghai Administration Institute, the instructing unit of the drill, witnessed the event, and the professors and PhDs of the Emergency Management Training Center also joined as experts for drill design and evaluation.

    Through the participation and observation of the Shanghai trial of the China-EU project----“Emergency Drill Design and Optimization”, the concerned personnel enhanced their understanding of the concept of the EU emergency drills, the design principles, and their differences from Chinese practice. The valuable experience from the EU side will be an effective guide for our future teaching on emergency management drills.

    Back on June 15, 2012, the China-EU Emergency Management Project was launched in the Chinese Academy of Governance, which also marked the opening of China-EU Emergency Management Academy. The project is a joint initiative between the Chinese government and EU with an aim to strengthen the cooperation on emergency management theories and practice, and support the Chinese government to improve its system, mechanism and legislation of emergency management to minimize the impact of emergent public events.

    Shanghai is a pilot city in the project. From May 2014 to May 2016, a series of activities were carried out in Shanghai and Europe to help local governments improve their capabilities in emergency management and communication with the public. Shanghai Administration Institute actively participated in the Shanghai trial of the project led by Chinese Academy of Governance. In the past three years, the Emergency Management Training Center of the Institute has had faculty trainings for emergency management drills, workshops for the experts from China and EU, consultations on drill plans and evaluations of the project results. Our work received great support and guidance from the Emergency Management Training Center of Chinese Academy of Governance, which helped establish a communication and exchange platform for the Institute’s emergency management training.

    As the concluding event, the drill simulated an extreme scenario in the chemical industry park after it was hit by a strong typhoon, which included multiple crises such as fire and explosion of foreign chemical companies, leakage of oil tanks, leakage of oil in the port that resulted in pollution in the sea and toxic gas spread, and thus an evacuation was necessary. The drill included three mock exercises and two exercises in the headquarters to cover 13 aspects: on-site settings, plan design, information reporting, alarm release, emergency command, emergency rescue, transfer of the injured by air, information transparency, media communication, accident investigation, on-site recovery and drill evaluation.

    It was a first of its kind in China for chemical emergency drill with international partnership. The drill tested the organization and teamwork of Shanghai Chemical Industry Park for emergent public events, enriched the context of the China-EU project’s trial in Shanghai, and strengthened the international partnership in emergency management theories and practice. The experience obtained from the drill is inspirational to further optimize China’s emergency management drills.