Technical Planning and Evaluation Course

An accident involving chemical agents could be a rapidly occurring event providing emergency management personnel no time for detailed analysis. It would require an immediate emergency response. In order to ensure such an effective response, as much decision making as possible should be completed during the planning phase. Then the decisions made can be implemented in the case of an accident.

Protective action strategies are sets of responses to different emergency situations that are developed using a variety of planning tools. The decision-making process is a way to decide which of these sets of strategies to implement during various kinds of emergency situations. After the strategies have been defined, a decision-making process can be developed for selecting the appropriate strategy in an emergency. One of the primary functions of the Technical Planning and Evaluation (TPE) course is to help the planner organize the information and concepts discussed in the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program (CSEPP) Planning Guidance and Guidelines into a practical framework for developing local protective action plans. Three elements of the emergency decision process to be used for deciding which protective action strategy to implement and in which sectors the strategy should be implemented are to identify the critical information (e.g., release and meteorological conditions) required to make the decision; to identify the portion on the emergency planning zone affected; and to identify the protective action strategy to be implemented.

The objectives of TPE are to identify the physical and chemical properties of chemical agents that are important to the protective action decision-making process and how these relate to developing protective action strategies; to identify the potential human health effects of chemical agents that are important for the protective action decision-making process and how these relate to developing protective action strategies; to define and illustrate the concepts of exposure, dose, and risk, and show how these relate to the protective action decision making process; to list the basic functions of models and describe their use in planning; to list and describe the specific planning tools developed within CSEPP for protective action planning; and to define evacuation and sheltering as protective actions for CSEPP.