Architects, engineers, experts, surveyors and geologists together for the creation of the SOT in Rome

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Emma Potter

Presidents’ statements

Said the OAR President Alessandro Panci: «Today is an important milestone, which comes after years of demanding work. As architects, every day we try to make people understand the importance of having safe cities. However, we very often encounter difficulties in being able to transmit what we could define as a culture of risk and prevention. The birth of the SOT, by bringing together the skills of the various professional associations, can provide a useful technical and cultural contribution. This moment also becomes a source of pride for us, given the contribution that our Orders have always given in disaster situations, and we believe it is crucial to have a structure that can, in a short time, bring together the realities of the province of Rome”.

President Ord. declared. Eng. Rome Massimo Cerri: «Being aware of living in an area potentially exposed to risk factors is not in itself sufficient to grow a culture on the subject, much less a culture of prevention. We can no longer afford a superficial and backward approach to risk. We must develop serious, realistic and effective prevention training valid for all social strata. There is no alternative. With the SOT it will be possible to have greater operations on the territory, allowing timely updating of data and offering a greater contribution to Civil Protection activities”.

Declared the President of the Order of Industrial Experts of Rome and its province Giovanni De Baggis: «The birth of the SOT is fundamental because, as well as at a national level, there is now synergy between the professional associations also at a territorial level. And this is even more important for an area like that of Rome and its province, which presents many peculiarities at a water level and beyond.”

Why was SOT born?

As underlined by the Coordinator of the OAR Civil Protection Commission Carlo Zaffina illustrating the reasons that pushed the professional associations to create the SOT, the territory of the province of Rome is very large, with its over 5 thousand square kilometers, 121 municipalities and 4.3 million inhabitants: «To manage such a territory we must unite. As the Order of Architects of Rome we have provided support following the earthquakes that occurred from 1980 onwards. But it is important to all act together to fmake an active contributionconstant, not only in emergencies.”

The SOT was created on the basis of the provisions of the legislation relating to the establishment of the National Technical Unit and the new Civil Protection Code of 2018, which in article 13 underlines that the professional orders and councils «contribute to civil protection activitiesalso through forms of association or collaboration or cooperation”.

As is already the case for the STN, which includes 153 architects, 56 engineers, 21 surveyors, 10 geologists and 10 industrial experts, the SOT will not work alone nand times when a response to a natural disaster is required. The new territorial body, underlined Zaffina, «it will allow us to move more quickly, but we will not intervene only in emergency cases and we will make a constant contribution with a view to prevention, also by expanding training initiatives for members of professional associations”.

In addition to Zaffina for the OAR and De Baggis for the Industrial Experts, the list of SOT members includes: Alessio CaminadaCivil Protection Coordinator of the Order of Engineers of Rome, Alessandro CapodiferroCivil Protection Coordinator of the Rome Surveyors College, Roberto CrescenziCivil Protection Coordinator of the Lazio Geological Order

From the joint press release of the Press Office of the Order of Architects PPC of Rome and its province and of the Press Office of the Order of Engineers of the province of Rome