Key points of human awareness and emergency planning. School as a case study

Environmental, architectural and organizational issues may support or hinder planned emergency measures. Existing laws define a set of parameters that have to be implemented within the framework for disaster, in order to ensure the health and safety both for workers and guests. A recent study has been developed to test the response of individuals and the efficiency of emergency plans, analysing the response of people just after an earthquake. Educational institutions have been chosen as field of application, because these buildings represent a mix of staff, employees, students and families, anyone with different knowledge, behaviours and roles of emergency procedures as planned. The study of the emergency and post-emergency stages, as perceived by the 1,300 individuals who took part in the survey, has highlighted a preferred list of key points used later by educational teams, municipality offices and civil protection to strengthen the existing procedures. The scope is to organize a feasible defence in case of danger, based on a better building and urban evaluation, training people within a broader “civil based” emergency instruction.