The seventh Modules Table-Top Exercise of the 11th cycle took place from 19 to 23 June 2023 in Portugal. The scenario which was trained was floods and landslides due to heavy rain. A total of 28 participants (20 Modules Key Personnel, 6 EUCPT and 2 TAST) took part in the exercise.
The seventh Modules Table-Top Exercise (ModTTX7) took place from 19 to 23 June 2023 in Sintra, Portugal. The exercise was hosted by the Portuguese National Fire Service School (ENB). It was conducted at the Technical School in Sintra and elaborated a scenario of flood and landslides.
The scenario was severe flooding caused by widespread heavy rain and storms, which caused the Tagus River to flood, particularly affecting the areas of Colares, Constância, and Loures. The situation is further complicated with major landslides. To add a degree of realism to the scenario, role-players (playing themselves) from the local and regional Fire Brigades of Bonn were also involved.
The Exercise was hosted by the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW-DE), in cooperation with the rest of the consortium, formed of the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (URSZR-SI), the French National Fire Officers Academy (ENSOSP-FR), the Federal Public Service Home Affairs – Directorate-General for Civil Protection (DGCP-BE), the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia (MUP), the Danish Emergency Management Agency (DEMA-DK) and the Escola Nacional de Bombeiros (ENB-PT).
There were 28 participants from 12 different countries comprising of ten Modules Key Personnel teams, an EUCP Team and a TAST who took part in this exercise. Including Exercise Control (EXCON), certifiers, trainers, role players and support staff, about 50 persons were involved in the exercise.
In addition, as part of the role-play, there was a VIP visit by the President of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Agency (ANEPC) and the Second National Commander for Emergency and Civil Protection (role-played as themselves).
The reception of the VIP visit was organized and implemented by the EUCPT together with the modules. These visits give the exercise participants the opportunity to practice quick consolidation of all relevant information (situation, response, UCPM assistance efforts) in order to efficiently communicate it to other parties.
For the first time, one of the events of the exercise was conducted using VR. The ENB is already equipped with a VR lab, which was used in the exercise to conduct a virtual Base of Operations (BoO) assessment by the participants. Several possible BoO locations were reconstructed in the VR software so that the participants could "physically" walk around and look at the locations.
They were guided by the owner of the BoO location. The setting was operated from a control room located on the other side of the building. From here, someone from the ENB controlled the virtual avatar of the BoO owner. The participants could talk to the BoO owner (played by the VR controller) via microphones and speakers. This allowed them to ask insightful questions about each location and receive practical answers, as this aspect was "real" and not simulated.
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