IMPRINTS

IMproving Preparedness and RIsk maNagemenT for flash floods and debriS flow events

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The aim of IMPRINTS is to contribute to reduce loss of life and economic damage through the improvement of the preparedness and the operational risk management for Flash Flood and Debris Flow [FF/DF] generating events, as well as to contribute to sustainable development through reducing damages to the environment. To achieve this ultimate objective the project is oriented to produce methods and tools to be used by emergency agencies and utility companies responsible for the management of FF/DF risks and associated effects. Impacts of future changes, including climatic, land use and socioeconomic will be analysed in order to provide guidelines for mitigation and adaptation measures. Specifically, the consortium will develop an integrated probabilistic forecasting FF/ DF system as well as a probabilistic early warning and a rule-based probabilistic forecasting system adapted to the operational use by practitioners. These systems will be tested on five selected flash flood prone areas, two located in mountainous catchments in the Alps, and three in Mediterranean catchments. The IMPRINTS practitioner partners, risk management authorities and utility company managers in duty of emergency management in these areas, will supervise these tests. The development of such systems will be carried out using and capitalising the results of previous and ongoing research on FF/DF forecasting and warning systems, in which several of the partners have played a prominent role. One major result of the project will be a operational prototype including the tools and methodologies developed under the project. This prototype will be designed under the premise of its ultimate commercialization and use worldwide. The consortium, covering all the actors involved in the complex chain of FF & DF forecasting, has been carefully selected to ensure the achievement of this. Specific actions to exploit and protect the results and the intellectual property of the partners have been also defined.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

EU researchers have developed a novel early warning system for European areas at risk of flash floods (FFs). Flooding is Europe's most important natural hazard and flood risk management is critical to public safety and quality of life.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Although plans for managing flood risk must address all aspects, researchers focused on the 3 Ps: prevention, protection and preparedness. Even though much is already known about the nature and dynamics of FFs and debris flows (DFs), it has not proved easy to apply this knowledge in practice.

Forecasting and early warning systems are the most effective methods for increasing preparedness in Europe and mitigating the risk of FFs and DFs. With this in mind, the 'Improving preparedness and risk management for flash floods and debris flow events' (IMPRINTS) project, funded by the EU, was set up. The project's goal was to work towards establishing a coherent common methodology in Europe in order to reduce the loss of life and financial damage caused by FF/DF events.

To achieve its objective, the IMPRINTS project set out to produce methods and tools for the emergency services and utility companies responsible for the management of FF/DF risks. The impact of future changes, such as climate change, were also analysed so as to draw up guidelines for mitigation and adaptation measures.

IMPRINTS partners developed an early warning operational platform based on rainfall predictions using meteorological models and from weather radar networks. The platform is able to transform these rainfall forecasts into hydrological ones, and combine them with other data to provide a full early warning system for FF and DF risk management.

The design of the new early warning platform supports both implementation of the EU's Flood Directive and development of the flood risk management plans it requires. In addition, it can be easily adapted for use in any river basin across Europe, thereby making life for populations living in these areas safer and more secure.