The regional Civil Protection System in Emilia Romagna, which is part of the National Civil Protection System, is increasingly organized and in touch with the community through local bodies. It is based on common intervention actions aimed at providing prompt responses during emergencies, with coordination at a provincial level by the Prefectures.

This organization allows a greater efficiency in the planning of civil protection activities, notably forecasting and preventive actions developed in the Provinces.

Communication in the field of Civil Protection takes two forms :

• exchange of knowledge and information between the components of the Regional Civil Protection System,
• communication and information to inhabitants. The Civil Protection alert, based on technical scientific forecasting, is sent to local bodies, technical structures and the inhabitants through the media.

The Active Messaging system forwards information to the institutional components and to the operative structures of the Regional Civil protection System. It is based on integrated solution hardware and software which provides all the tools required to carry out control task, to advise, and to create a log of operations related to the reception, elaboration and forwarding of official communication on civil protection issues (alerts in particular). SIREM (integrated regional monitoring system for Civil Protection) is an instrument enabling civil protection operators to monitor the evolution of a meteorological event and to activate a state of alert in order to manage a probable hydrogeological emergency in an integrated and coordinated way. An agreement on communication and information issues was reached in 2004 with the Department of Communication Discipline of the University of Bologna. Regional Guidelines on Civil Protection planning were also approved in 2004.