Abstract
Aim: This paper attempts to prove that an effective model of protecting civilians from consequences of hazards ensuing from natural events considered as natural disasters, as well as risks arising from civilisational development in the reality of a global world, is the civil security engineering system based on achievements of many scientific disciplines related to the humanities, social sciences and technical sciences. This objective is justified by the thesis that stipulates that civil security engineering is an interdisciplinary measure of numerous entities in a modern state, the task of which is ensuring security for the society as regards the protection of life and health, property and the environment as fundamental conditions for the existence of the nation.
Introduction: The contemporary reality, in which the 21st century society is functioning, creates diverse hazards for human life and health, property and the environment. Hence it is the obligation of the state to seek new effective methods that would allow combatting the consequences of such hazards. Many of those methods and tools are comprised by security engineering with civil protection engineering distinguished as a specialist discipline, which comprises means, methods and ways of organising effective protection of the society, human life and health as well as civilisational and cultural achievements of the society.
Methodology: The basic method adopted in preparing this article was a review of source materials related to hazards to the society resulting from natural phenomena and industrial environment, followed by preparing conclusions and a presentation of the complete reasoning in relation to the subject of the present article.
Conclusions: Civil protection is one of the most crucial challenges for the state security system in the context of all-encompassing globalisation, which is conducive to the generation of new hazards, especially those that result from the development of modern technologies. But also in the sphere of natural hazards we are faced with new events, i.a., due to climate change, such as extreme weather conditions, changes to annual precipitation, melting of icebergs, rise of the water level in seas and oceans, or the recent spread of epidemic hazards, which may be caused by diverse viruses, such as the current coronavirus outbreak. To be effective, the civil protection system has to be organised in a way that ensures it is capable of coping with all challenges; it needs to be able to use knowledge from many scientific fields and domains, and furthermore it also has to be an interdisciplinary system characterised not only by social knowledge, but in the first place technical know-how, and that is why we can speak of civil protection engineering.
Keywords: civil protection, natural and technical hazards, rules for civil protection, safety engineering, civil security engineering, civil protection engineering
Type of article: review article