Approaches to the Population Sheltering in Selected Countries in Relation to Threats and the Security Environment

The aim of this article is to analyze the approaches of the Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Germany and the United States of America to the issue of sheltering in the context of current security threats with regard to the development of the geopolitical situation. The article defines the basic methods of sheltering, types of shelters with regard to related normative legal acts and other documents, their current technical state, the capacity of shelters and the structure of threats for which sheltering is used, current initiatives in the field of sheltering and information support for the population. Variants of approaches to sheltering within individual countries are subjected to comparison and multi-criteria analysis. The output of the multi-criteria analysis is the order of alternative approaches to the sheltering of the population compiled on the basis of the proposed criteria, including a verbal assessment for the purpose of interpretation and contextualization of the findings.