A Participatory Approach to Embedding Cascading Crises Exercises in Local Riskscapes to Build Community Resilience

Abstract

Contemporary crises increasingly unfold as cascading processes, challenging conventional, event-based approaches to local preparedness and crisis response. While international frameworks emphasize community-level resilience, practical methodologies for operationalizing these principles in crisis exercises remain underdeveloped. This paper introduces a participatory, low-cost methodology for crisis scenario-based exercising embedded in local riskscapes. The approach integrates participatory mapping, expert interviews, co-creation and discussion of crisis scenarios, and collaborative development of preparedness recommendations, engaging community members, local authorities, and crisis response professionals. Drawing on two case studies from Lithuania, an external EU border-adjacent community and a strategically embedded urban locality, the paper illustrates how the suggested methodology helps identify locally important risks, reveal response constraints, and strengthen cross-sectoral collaboration. The paper shows that treating crisis exercises as pedagogical processes enhances shared situational awareness and preparedness, offering a transferable contribution to crisis exercise design and community-inclusive resilience building.