(54d) Development of Chemical Accident Response Scenario for Public Officers in Korea

Nowadays, Korea is adopting the Incident Management System (ICS) in U.S. for managing complex disasters. In this study, a disaster response scenario which is focused on chemical accident is developed for acclimating public officers to the new response management system. 13 management units which participated in disaster response are selected for Korean response management system and their tasks are defined. Also, distinct characteristics of chemical accident compared with other accidents, such as diffusion and change in the extent of damage are applied to the response scenario.

Basically the scenario consists of timeline, accident situation, damage degree, main issues of specific time and the responses of management units. Wind direction, wind speed, location, accident equipment, accident materials and leakage are considered for making accident situation that rarely occurs. Because the ordinary or trivial accidents are treated well with no more special training, the rare accidents are worthy of training. The damage degree is determined by previous accidents that have similar scale of the scenario situation. The responses of management units are based on the assumption that the accident situation is solved smoothly by carrying out their work without any problems or failure.

In order to train the government employees effectively, 23 main issues are chosen by case study. Each of the problems is repetitive or significant problems when responding to chemical accidents. These issues are reflected in scenario that take into account the time that the problem occurs. By presenting the necessary countermeasures to solve the major issues that take place in specific time, it is possible to solve the problems occurring when responding to chemical accidents.

This research was supported by a grant [MOIS-DP-2015-10] through the Disaster and Safety Management Institute funded by Ministry of the Interior and Safety of Korean government.