ENHANCE

Enhancing risk management partnerships for catastrophic natural disasters in Europe

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The main goal of the ENHANCE project is to develop and analyse new ways to enhance society’s resilience to catastrophic natural hazard impacts, by providing new scenarios and information in selected hazard cases in close collaboration with stakeholders, and by contributing to the development of new multi-sector partnerships (MSPs) to reduce or redistribute risk. Innovation in MSPs is essential, as (ineffective) cooperation between public, private and civil society institutions often leads to failures in risk management. The ENHANCE proposal is unique as it studies the potential for new MSPs for managing different catastrophic hazards, related to heat waves, forest fires, flood, drought, storm surge, and volcanic eruptions. Key to successful partnerships is a common understanding of risks and the implications of proposed risk reduction instruments. Therefore, ENHANCE facilitates a participatory process to develop MSPs in cases studies at different geographical- and spatial scales in Europe. The main products of ENHANCE are a) a harmonised dynamic scenarios of vulnerability, exposure, and hazard at the pan-European scale, using existing information and new probabilistic approaches for multi-hazards, heat-waves, forest fires, floods, droughts, storm surges, and volcanic eruptions; b) guidelines and key features for enhancing MSP interaction in successful resilience enhancement and risk reduction, pre-tested via participatory workshops on risk-based scenarios; c) methods for linking MSPs to novel scientific risk scenarios and assessments; d) a toolbox of economic instruments and non-structural mitigation measures at the national, regional, and local levels developed in a participatory manner and aimed at assessing risk and increasing societal resilience; and e) policy recommendations to the EU and HFA signatories delivered through a dissemination platform for enhancing resilience from high political levels to local communities. ENHANCE offers a team that consists of scientific research institutes, public policy organisations including UNISDR, private sector specialists and an NGO that ensure societal relevance and the feasibility of implementation of our deliverables. Within 10 case studies public and private partners will be approached to develop MSPs and to test our methods. Finally, the project will ensure that its products will impact target groups through a dissemination strategy, developed in close collaboration with members of an external advisory board.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Europe is experiencing a rise in severe weather events, making it the third most affected region after the Americas and Asia. An EU initiative is developing new risk scenarios for extreme natural hazards.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Climate change is mainly responsible for the increase in extreme natural events. Such events are especially troublesome because they are hard to predict, resulting in fatalities, billion-euro losses and environmental damage.

The EU-funded 'Enhancing risk management partnerships for catastrophic natural disasters in Europe' (http://www.enhanceproject.eu/ (ENHANCE)) project aims to mitigate the devastating aftermath by developing and analysing new ways to improve society's resilience to severe natural hazards. To achieve this, it is collaborating closely with partners in the public and private sectors, particularly insurers, as well as civil society organisations.

Project work is designed around 10 case studies on managing risk from catastrophic events such as heatwaves, forest fires, floods, drought, storm surges and volcanic eruptions that occur throughout Europe.

During the first reporting period, the project initially looked at existing multi-sector partnerships (MSPs) between public and private stakeholders for each case study.

To this end, it created a list of risk assessment and management tools and methods for evaluating current and future risk. An approach was proposed on the emerging concept of resilience and to the threats posed by natural hazards and extreme disaster events. Indicators were identified for use in the case studies in order to assess current partnerships and their performance in managing and reducing risk from natural hazards.

Existing risk data was studied and enriched. Key economic instruments in risk management were also put forth based on their expected uptake in the case studies.

The project will look at the potential for new MSPs in order to provide resilience measures and risk management policy recommendations.

ENHANCE is developing guiding principles and practical means for achieving disaster resilience and reducing the impacts of extreme natural hazards. It should begin to build a culture of resilience in Europe by mobilising EU Member States to mitigate risk.