earlywarning-blanco

EARLY WARNING

PROJECT PROGRESS

AA-FLOODS spin-off funded with € 4M

The FLUBIOGENIL project, led by Écija, one of AA-FLOODS pilot cities, has obtained €3.8M in Next Generation financing, which together with municipal financing will represent €3.99M to develop Nature-Based Solutions for actions on flood risk mitigation and prevention, fluvial ecosystems recovery and fluvial restoration in the Genil River. The project has been prepared for the ...

AA-FLOODS spin-off funded with € 4M

The project will implement specific actions on early warning, focused on capturing accurate data with the maximum anticipation and transforming it into useful information for emergency management.

An effort will be done on facilitate the access and use of EFAS meteorological pre-alert information currently generated and distributed by the EU to National and Regional authorities, to be exploited at local scales where people live and damage occurs.

A Pilot test for Early Warning by river overflow will be developed. A network of sensors will warn of the overflow of rivers and streams and will activate corrective measures of the Local Action Plans against Floods, to which it contributes to improve. It supposes a new approach, because EU Member States count on sensors that measure the level and volume of the rivers, but they are not focused on floods prevention but mainly on the management of water reservoirs and dams (in water as a resource and the infrastructures to store and distribute it for drinking and irrigation purposes).

The Pilot will develop hydrological and hydraulic models that will specify the Flood Hazards. The sensor network will have the added function of verifying simulations and improving forecasts based on real data.

The signal from the sensors will be integrated into the Open Data Communication System of the Hydrographic Basin Agency, which makes the Flood Prevention, Warning and Management System more robust and will make inter-administrative collaboration more fluid.

ACTIONS

ACTION

1

Protocols to access Early-Alerts EFAS / COPERNICUS data

Development of Communication Protocols to access Early-Alerts EFAS / COPERNICUS data at Local Scale as surveillance systems to support threat and emergency response:

For greater effectiveness in early warning, a direct communication of the AA-FLOODS pilots with EFAS will be developed, and an attempt will be made to disaggregate the information at a local level of detail so that it can be integrated and exploited with the tools that are going to experiment in the Pilots 1,2,3.

An agreement with EFAS will be sought so they asume the processing and refining of these data, given their technical capabilities and interest in this challenge.

 As an output we’ll obtain a Guide with the formal and technical procedures to access and manage at Local Scales the EU Early-Warning public Information, with a level of detail that allows activate emergency plans against floods in the affected localities.

ACTION

2

Pilot 2 – Rivers overflow early warning System

Early-Warning flooding System Model will be teste don the andalusian Genil river sub-basin scale. It will include: 

  1. 1) The Deployment of sensors: a sensors mesh will allow rivers monitoring integrating Open Data into the Spanish Ministry of Environment Communications System. Given that this is an Open Data System, both Pilot cities and AA-FLOODS partners will have real-time access to information on the volume of water carried by the rivers in order to anticipate possible overflows in urban environments.
  2. An Inter-Administrative Communications System that will be enhanced in search of a better co-ordination and collaboration for rivers overflow early warning. 
  3. The generation of 3D LIDAR maps to accurately model the overflow of rivers.
  4. Rivers’ overflow modelling that will be used both to enhance Crisis Management and to test alert sensors and improve their accuracy and the uncertainty in the exploitation and analysis of their data. 

Lessons obtained by contrasting models and sensor intakes will enhance Prevention Plans. 

AA-FLODS will implement a Guide to create a system with real-time information on rainfall and river / streams flows, which will function as an early warning system specifically to monitor the overflow of rivers by heavy rains. The guide will explain how to enhance both Open Data Communications System implementation & Sensors Deployment through cooperation among National-Regional-Local Stakeholders.