FreiburgRESIST: Living Safely in Frei­burg – Resilience Management for the City

FreiburgRESIST is a federally-funded, collaborative research pro­ject involving the City of Freiburg authorities and the University of Freiburg’s transdisciplinary Cen­tre for Security and Society. It integrates the fields of information technology, ju­rid­ical, sociological, ethical, and political security research. Supported by several partners, this four-year project aims to develop an advanced, dynamic, interconnected resilience management system for the City of Freiburg. In doing so, it would redefine security management by integrating security authorities and the population into a single model, with the project partners planning to create a flexible crisis management system that en­hances each aspect of the administrative process—from precautionary planning, to timely and effective evacua­tions and, lastly, constructive post-event evaluations.
By employing ethical-legal technology assessment methods, the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Se­cu­rity and Law makes a significant contribution to FreiburgRESIST’s approach to resilience management, which aims to clarify the needs and demands of all concerned parties, including police authorities, fire brigades, and first-aiders. This innovative system combines technical solutions and social strategies to strengthen public en­gagement and civic courage, endeavoring to optimize communication between the city’s emergency services and citizens, thereby ensuring rapid responses to critical safety and security situations and risk scenarios. Close co­op­eration with a broad array of regional stakeholders, such as police and fire services, event organizers, trade and tourism representatives, local gastronomy services, and civic associations, is expected to further establish and confirm their particular needs and to incorporate them more effectively into the project’s overall resilience man­age­ment system.