Phil Emonson | Flood Resilience Lead Types of exercise Phil Emonson | Flood Resilience Lead

Table-Top

Example – Exercise Unite Multi-agency table top exercise West Mercia Police Herefordshire County Council West Mids Ambulance Service Hereford & Worcester Fire Service EA Aim To exercise responder and multi-agency activation of Silver command and control arrangements for a major flooding incident Simulated media cell

Why table-top? Lower investment / commitment for set up (time, cost, resources) Stimulates and promotes discussions, and therefore… Builds trust, confidence in others = team-building Effective for individual agencies / responders, and multi-agency Can pause, for break-out discussions Effective for reviewing plans, procedures, and policies Based on a specific scenario / incident Response staff can become familiar with roles and responsibilities But… Limited in scale and duration Not able to exercise / test rostering, business continuity, welfare / H&S No field deployment Probably most common type of exercise

Command Post

Post-exercise debrief Example – Network Rail Suite of control-post exercises for asset engineers and route controllers across 7 Network Rail routes in England & Wales Delivered via the NR Flood Warning Database And the award for Best Name goes to …? Wales – Exercise Dragon Kent – Exercise Dickens Anglia – Exercise Canute Wessex – Exercise Harvey London North East – Exercises Thor & Neptune Western – Exercise Drake Post-exercise debrief Exercise report Targeted Action Plan

JEMS – JBA’s Exercise Management System Could use a bespoke training platform for exercise delivery Simulates all data response staff would receive during an incident, including injects KEY FEATURES Flexibility - web-based, allowing multiple users to log-in from any location Time compression - JEMS offers the facility to operate at a speed to suit the scenario being played, including in real time. Audit trail - Message logs can be exported to allow analysis of participant responses and support evaluation Exercise control - managers have control over time compression, injects, failing data, and monitoring progress Exercising or to support CPD through in-house training

JEMS Exercises Recent Environment Agency Exercises JEMS used to deliver; Exercise Black Blade (2017) for 24 duty staff Exercise Occam’s Razor (2016) for 30 duty staff During these 3-day exercises, JEMS; delivered 15-minute continuous hydrometric data received and displayed NFFS forecasts ran by participants released radar images displayed hydrograph data Participant Feedback: “Really like the dashboard layout” “Easy to use, despite being unfamiliar with the system.” “JEMS is an effective system for an exercise” “Easy to use with no training required”

Example – Wessex Storm Two EA offices (Blandford & Bridgwater) 200+ warning, forecasting and operational duty staff JEMS provided continuous 30-hour data feed: Hydrometric river and rainfall data Radar Live flood forecasting feeds direct from NFFS Flood Guidance Statements Injects Live deployment of operational equipment (e.g. high capacity pumps) Multi-agency teleconference with other Cat. 1 and 2 responders from Avon and Somerset

Why control-post? Immersive / real-life situation Using the data you’d normally have access to Based in control rooms Awareness of how tools and systems work Effective for individual agencies / responders, and multi-agency Can be longer duration, drawing in more duty staff, testing: Rostering Welfare H&S Business continuity But… Can be more challenging to set-up Checking availability of participants Longer set-up: scenario development, inject design, data preparation, etc. Logistics – booking rooms, etc. Back to the cycle – wouldn’t start with a control-post exercise Probably most common type of exercise

Live deployment / field

Live deployment / field-based Field deployment Exercise Wessex Storm – high capacity pumps deployed to the Somerset Levels Community flood exercises Bring community together Engage residents – ownership of risk Flood wardens rehearse roles and responsibilities Improvements to local plans and arrangements Deployment Wet tests – seeing is believing…

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