Brussels, 28/08/2014 (Agence Europe) - During this particularly rainy summer in Europe, the European Commission pointed out on Thursday 28 August that as part of the 7th Framework Research Programme (FP7), the EU is funding projects for developing forecasting and alert systems to warn communities of impending floods.
Imprints, WeSenseIt and UrbanFlood are just three examples of EU-funded research projects in this field. It is a significant challenge because, as the Commission emphasises, timely flood alerts and real-time monitoring of flood emergencies can save lives and prevent damage to property, infrastructure and the environment. Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Innovation and Science, explained: “The EU continues to invest research and innovation into flood management and prevention. Our aim is to help governments take adequate and coordinated measures to reduce this risk and protect its citizens”.
The Imprints project received €3.3 million under the EU's FP7. Flood management and prevention is at the heart of this project which has developed an early warning platform to cut responses to flash floods down to about two hours, and even less - potentially giving people more time to get out of harm's way. The platform is based on better rainfall predictions, using meteorological models and weather radar networks. The software is able to predict water flows on the ground and provide a full early warning system for flash floods, the amount of debris they might carry and any potential damage to local infrastructure.
Water services and hydro-meteorological operations in Spain, Switzerland and France are using innovations deriving from these projects to refine their own real-time forecasting systems. Furthermore, flash flood indicators, developed within this project, are used now in the operational European Flood Awareness System.
WeSenseIt received €5.4 million in FP7 funding and comes to an end in September 2016. It makes use of the power of human observation as an essential part of an early warning system. People contribute by taking measurements using new apps currently being developed by the project, and sending information and images by mobile phone. These new technologies and approaches are being tested in Italy, the Netherlands and the UK. In Italy, an evaluation involving some 500 volunteers simulating a flood in the city of Vicenza was completed at the end of March 2014.
UrbanFlood received around €2.3 million in FP7 funding. It has developed sensors and related technology to monitor flood embankments and provide an early warning of their risk of failing.
The European Commission's Joint Research Centre is also contributing to the research on floods, with the development of European and global flood forecasting and monitoring systems such as EFAS, GloFAS and GFDS. (AN)