Comprehensive civil defence exercises would help improve public preparedness for crises, according to the study “From Siren to Shelter? Civil Defence in Riga” conducted by the think tank LaSER.
The think tank today presented its latest study, which — based on data obtained from a crisis simulation — offers recommendations on how to improve Riga residents’ readiness to act in emergency situations.
The research analyses civil defence challenges and solutions in Vilnius, Tallinn, Helsinki, Kyiv, and Riga, as well as the role of civil defence within a comprehensive national defence strategy.
In August this year, the think tank, in cooperation with the Riga municipality, organised a scenario-based crisis simulation involving 185 participants. The data collected allowed researchers to identify factors that either facilitate or hinder residents’ ability to respond in emergencies, as well as areas where public communication needs improvement.
One of the key recommendations is to involve residents in large-scale civil defence training exercises.
Although people in the Baltic region recognise the need to be able to respond to crisis situations, preparedness indicators across several key criteria remain below the European Union (EU) average, the researchers concluded. For example, last year only 6% of Latvia’s population had participated in crisis preparedness training. By comparison, 14% of residents in Estonia and 24% in Finland had taken part in such exercises. While these figures are also not optimal, they significantly exceed Latvia’s level, noted the study’s author Roberts Kits.
The study emphasises that improvements to Riga’s civil defence system should be approached more broadly by also including neighbouring municipalities. The Riga metropolitan area is the largest and fastest-growing urban region in the Baltic states, with an average of 156,000 to 200,000 residents commuting daily between Riga and its surrounding municipalities, the authors highlighted.
The crisis simulation helped identify the most common obstacles to effective public response. One key factor is location — whether people are at home or at work. Fifty-seven percent of participants indicated that their location would significantly affect their ability to respond, as most workplaces lack essential supplies and clear response protocols. As a result, many respondents said their first instinct would be to try to get home.
“Public involvement and resilience are the backbone of civil defence,”
Kits stressed. While Latvia has for several years been actively strengthening the preparedness and coordination capacity of state institutions, residents are often left out of these efforts, he said. For example, 58% of Riga residents expect more active and detailed communication from the state about how to act in emergency situations.
At the same time, a contradiction has been identified: residents themselves often display passivity. In 2024, only 3% of Latvia’s population had signed up to receive emergency alerts from state or municipal authorities — the lowest participation rate among all EU member states, Kits noted.
The crisis simulation clearly demonstrates the need to involve residents in practical training of various kinds. “The ability to take responsibility for one’s own and one’s family’s safety is essential, because in such situations the workload of emergency services does not allow them to provide individual assistance to every resident,” Kits said.
LaSER is a think tank founded by several entrepreneurs with the aim of developing innovative, evidence-based policy ideas, shaping public opinion, and offering analysis-driven solutions for Latvia’s national development to policymakers.
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