European Projects

I-CHANGE: I-CHANGE project

The documented effects of climate change and environmental degradation are a threat to human societies on European and global scales. Climate change may have an impact on water availability, may increase the threat of flooding and flash-floods, and will challenge coastal regions due to rising sea levels. All this will have impacts on the economy and society. The role of citizens and their skills become important both in limiting human impacts ...

SedInOut: Assessing sediment connectivity and availability in several mountain catchments in the Veneto Region

Mass wasting is a threat to residential areas and infrastructure, causing widespread destabilization in alpine stream channels, also in relation to ongoing climatic changes. Although hillslope sediment supply represents a critical factor for stream channel stability during heavy rainstorms, there is a general lack of procedures for quantifying sediment availability and composition. Moreover, we lack validated empirical models for estimating ...

MUHA: MUltiHAzard framework for water related risks management

The MUHA project is building upon the idea to address disaster management cycle consisting of preparedness-response-mitigation-rebuild components in the ADRION countries. It will connect the observed and modelled hazards and risks related to the integrated water cycle, by effectively join them with the existing and improved coping capacity developed by national, bilateral and EU Civil Protection ...

RECONECT : Regenarating ECOsystems with Nature-based solutions for hydro-meteorological risk rEduCTion

RECONECT is a Horizon 2020 project that aims to enhance the European reference framework on Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for hydro-meteorological risk reduction by demonstrating, referencing, upscaling and exploiting large-scale NBS in rural and natural areas. The Pilot site is the Portofino Natural Regional Park (Ligurian Apennines), 25 km E of Genoa. The park extends along both sides of the Promontory of Portofino, facing Tigullio and ...

U-Geohaz: Geohazard impact assessment for urban areas

The project is focused on monitoring geohazard-associated ground deformations, a key prevention action specifically addressed to urban areas and critical infrastructures. The project will propose a procedure to produce maps to assess continuously the potential impact of geohazard activity. These maps will provide inputs to support early warning, giving information on the stability of the monitored areas and to evaluate the expected ...

HERCULES: Towards geohazards resilient infrastructure under changing climates

A trend of increasingly frequent intense rainfalls and changing rainfall patterns is causing a relevant number of landslides and floods affecting urban areas and engineering infrastructures such as roads, railways. Recently Transport networks across Europe experienced several failures the reasons of which are still poorly understood.. To improve the current situation, a step change in the way we design reliable and effective defence structures ...

INDECIS: Integrated approach for the development across Europe of user oriented climate indicators for GFCS high-priority sectors: agriculture, disaster risk reduction, energy, health, water and tourism

Climate change strongly impacts the whole European territory. Drought severely affects agriculture; precipitation extremes are associated with flooding, severe damage to properties and lives; temperature extremes can increase mortality; the seasonality and availability of snow affects water resources and winter tourism; wind speed or sunshine hours affect the production of renewable energy. These relations can be studied through the computation ...

MEDSCOPE: Mediterranean Services Chain Based On Climate Predictions

The project focuses on climate predictions from seasonal-to-decadal timescales for the Mediterranean region (here defined as the domain encompassing the Mediterranean basin and the surrounding areas), and their applications in different sectors. The IRPI contribution will cover this aspect of the project, with specific reference to the conditions and evolution of cryosphere resources (WP4, Task ...

ADAPT: Progetto ADAPT

The ADAPT project, co-funded by the Interreg Italy-France Maritime Program 2014-2020, aims to adapt the Italian and French cities of the Upper Tyrrhenian to the consequences of climate change, with particular reference to the urban flash floods caused by intense meteorological ...

DOMINO: Dikes and Debris Flows Monitoring by Novel Optical Fiber Sensors

With more than 5 million people affected, more than 1000 killed, and with estimated total damages exceeding 4.5 billion Euros just in Europe and during the last decade, floods are among the most disruptive natural events threatening our Society. Due to increase in extreme weather events and rapid socio-economic developments in vulnerable locations, the risks connected to floods in general are growing rapidly, and the awareness of these risks ...

SAFETY: Sentinel for Geohazards regional monitoring and forecasting

SAFETY aims at providing Civil Protection Authorities with the capability of periodically evaluating and assessing the potential impact of geohazards (volcanic activity, landslides and subsidence) on urban areas. The project improves the effort to detect and map geohazards, assess their activity and evaluate their impact on built-up areas and infrastructures ...

Connecteur: Connecting European Connectivity Research

Water and sediment connectivity has emerged in recent years as a significant conceptual framework for understanding the transfer of surface water and sediment through landscapes. Connectivity can be seen both as a driver of hydrological and geomorphic processes within a catchment and as an emergent catchment property that is the result of processes acting at different ...

MAPPERS: Mobile Application for Emergency Response and Support

The responsibilities within natural hazards involve citizens and volunteers as first actors of civil protection. The prevention implicates technical volunteers, but the priority implies now awareness of local citizens. The involvement of population creates context-specific strategies of territorial surveillance and management. MAppERS empowers “crowd-sourced mappers” through smart phone applications and sensors, with geo-tagged information, ...

Landslide Modelling and tools for vulnerability assessment Preparedness and REcovery management

Il progetto FP7 LAMPRE - Landslide Modelling and tools for vulnerability assessment Preparedness and Recovery management svolge attività di ricerca innovative e di sviluppo tecnologico per migliorare le capacità del sistema Copernicus di far fronte a eventi di frana e alle loro conseguenze, in Europa e in altre parti del mondo. LAMPRE migliora il rischio di frana sforzi di mitigazione / preparazione e le attività di recupero e di ...

INCREO: Increasing Resilience through Earth Observation

To significantly contribute to the operational capacities in the context of Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)/ Copernicus by developing customised mapping and geo-information products addressing risk, vulnerability and assets ready for deployment in the prevention and preparedness phases – complementary to the GMES/Copernicus Emergency Management Service. Solutions to be provided are based for the most part on Earth ...

FLIRE: FLoods and fIre Risk assessment and managEment

FLIRE is a demonstration project aiming to the development of an integrated Decision Support System (DSS) for both flash floods and forest fires risk assessment and management. The DSS tool will be designed by using state of art tools, technologies and methods and taking into account prevention, adaptation and interaction issues. The final model will be online available to key stakeholders and relevant authorities (local and national) for the ...

SedAlp: Sediment management in Alpine basins

The understanding of the changing equilibrium between sediment supply from upstream and sediment transport capability of a river is important for the success of integrated water resource management. In Alpine river basins, intensive sediment transport processes and sediment continuity have a notable impact on several water management issues posing multiple use conflicts related to hydropower, ecology, flood control ...

Monitor II: Monitoring system for the Hahnebaum test site

A Deep-seated Gravitational Slope Deformation (DGSD) affects the south-west flank of mount Ganderberg (Moso in Passiria – BZ). The continuous displacements of the landslide induce secondary hazardous phenomena. A 800.000 m3 rock slab shows signs of incipient movement; a detachment could create a natural barrier on the river ...

ABOT: Assessment of water Balances and Optimisation based Target setting across EU River Basins

ABOT is one of the Pilot projects on Development of Prevention Activities to Halt Desertification in Europe, partly funded by DG Environment of the European Commission. The objective of the pilot projects is to support the development of concrete pilot initiatives on innovative technologies, techniques or practices in order to contribute to the exchanges of good practice and innovation for halting the desertification in ...

CHANGES: Changing Hydro-meteorological Risks as Analyzed by a New Generation of European Scientists

The European Commission has identified the need for adaptations in risk management as a consequence to climate and environmental changes in several documents. The implementation of risk management measures such as disaster preparedness programmes, land-use planning, regulatory zoning and early warning systems are considered essential. Further, multi-risk assessment approaches are not used in planning practice: risk indicators are hardly used ...

DORIS: Ground Deformations Risk Scenarios: an advanced assessment service

DORIS - Ivancich Landslide (Assisi, Italy) DORIS - Ground Deformations Risk Scenarios: an advanced assessment service is an advanced downstream service for the detection, mapping, monitoring and forecasting of ground deformations, at different temporal and spatial scales and in various physiographic and climatic and environments. DORIS integrates traditional and innovative Earth Observation (EO) and ground based (non-EO) data and technologies to improve our understanding of the ...

Monitor II: Monitoring system in the framewok of the Interreg IV Project “Monitor II”

Debris-flow monitoring in instrumented areas is an invaluable way to gather field data that may improve the understanding of these hazardous phenomena, as well as for the development of warning systems. The number of monitoring sites and the amount of recorded data on debris flows, however, still remain limited if compared to landslides and fluvial sediment transport. This motivated the Autonomous Province of Bozen-Bolzano to implement a new ...

GlaRiskAlp: Glacial hazards in the western Alps

The project is included in Operative Program of the European cross-border territorial cooperation "Alcotra 2007-2013". It brings together specialized scientific expertise Italian and French that deal to study the mountain and its dangerousness. It is divided into a part of studies conducted on the entire framework of the Western Alps and in actions on the pilot sites identified by the ...

PermaNET: Long-term Permafrost Monitoring Network

Permafrost is very sensitive to climate change and the risks associated with its degradation affect traffic routes, settlements and infrastructure. Data on the distribution of permafrost are inconsistent and there is no common strategy to tackle this problem. Local administrators should have the means to manage the risks associated with the degradation of the ...

Mountain Risks: from prediction to management and governance

The observed increase in disastrous events over the last decades, associated with a low perception of risk by the communities involved, along with the lack of efficient, socially accepted and environmentally sound remedial measures are amongst the motivation behind this research project. The adaptation of a combined multi-risk-oriented analysis, in which the investigations focus more on the interdependence of events rather than on single event, ...

HYDRATE: Hydrometeorological data resources and technologies for effective flash flood forecasting

Flash-floods develop at space and time scales that conventional observation systems for rainfall and river discharge are not able to monitor. Consequently, the atmospheric and hydrological generating mechanisms of flash-floods are poorly understood, leading to highly uncertain forecasts of these ...

CISM: Albanian International Center on Marine Sciences

The project CISM faces problems related to marine Albanian waters in view of the Adriatic basin, which must meet various environmental problems in other portions of the Adriatic Sea, which are still influenced by the contribution of Albanian waters. CISM is not only a time of growth of the scientific culture of Albania, but also a landmark in the international scenario of the Adriatic ...

WATER-MAP: Vulnerability maps for monitoring and management of groundwater resources in the Archimed area

The project considered the strong demand of local institutions to select the best existing practices, in relation to different national and local characteristics, considering the regulatory ...

FLOODMED: Monitoring, Forecasting and Best Practices for FLOOD Mitigation & Prevention in the CADSES Region

Hydrometeorological monitoring and flood forecasting are indispensable in preventing hydraulic hazard and ensuring civil protection. Implementing a sustainable plan to combat floods requires further activities, such as best practices for agricultural, forestry and land use management in flood risk areas. Methodologies must be developped within a transnational context, transending local ...

PREVIEW: Prevention, Information and Early Warning pre-operational services to support the management of risks

PREVIEW is an integrated project by the European Commission 6th Framework Programme, led by the EURORISK Consortium, a multi-disciplinary European Team of committing Actors of the domain: Civil Protections and Environmental Bodies; Scientific communities and Service operators, at national and regional level, for Meteorology, Hydrology, Seismology, Volcanology and GIS services based on Space data; and Industry. The project was organized around a ...

E2-C2: Extreme Events Causes and Consequences

E2C2 Project - Map of historical landslides in the Emilia-Romagna Region, Italy Extreme events are a key manifestation of complex systems, in both the natural and human world. Their economic and social consequences are a matter of enormous concern. Much of science has concentrated, until recently, on understanding the mean behaviour of physical, biological or social systems and their “normal” variability. Extreme events, due to their rarity, have been hard to study and even harder to predict. E2-C2 developed methods ...

RISK-AWARE: RISK-Advanced Weather forecasting system to Advice on Risk Events and management

Logo The RISK-AWARE project contributed to at fostering our collective ability to forecast the consequences of severe meteorological conditions, including high intensity and prolonged rainfall periods. For the purpose, geological/geomorphological models that predict the location and timing of landslides, or the propensity of a territory to generate slope failures, are of primary ...

RESPONSE: Responding to the risks from climate change

‘Response’ (or ‘Responding to the risks from climate change’) is a three-year Project supported by the LIFE financial instrument of the European Community, completed in December 2006. The Project provides a framework for understanding and preparing for the impacts of climate change around the European ...

LEWIS: Landslide Early Warning Integrated System

The focus on landslides results from the recognition that in many European countries slope instabilities affect urbanized areas and are a major threat to populations. Through the integration of remotely sensed data with ground data we identify significant surface changes which are taking place on landslide susceptible slopes and this is used as input to the assessment of ...

Debris fall assessment in mountain catchments for local end users

Erbanno (Lombardy). Map of rock fall count. Debris flows and rockfalls are a familiar hazard in European mountain areas and regularly cause loss of life, livelihood and property. Hazard assessment is therefore increasingly required in land use planning. However, there are no standard techniques and existing operational techniques are qualitative. DAMOCLES developed quantitative technologies for assessing the distribution of rapid slope failures and their hazard, for determining the ...