<p>Ensuring that early warning information is effectively translated into anticipatory/ early actions is a pressing challenge that requires partnership and coordination of multiple actors at different territorial levels. This issue has been investigated in the framework of the IPA Floods and Fires program (https://www.ipaff.eu/) for the Western Balkans and T&#252;rkiye in 7 pilot studies. An operational approach has been developed to guide key institutions in planning anticipatory actions in the event of a flood based on early warnings, considering EWS in its full length of value cycle.</p> <p>The approach is grounded on the concept that an Early Warning System (EWS) should be an &#8220;integrated system&#8221; comprising hazard monitoring, forecasting and prediction, disaster risk assessment, communication and preparedness activities, systems and processes&#8221; (WMO, 2016, UNDRR, 2009). A system approach enables to intersect and interlink all the elements and actors of EWS at different territorial levels, including local administrations, which are typically the first responder in case of a flood due to their proximity to at-risk communities.</p> <p>The approach consisted in few key steps part of gradual capacity development process. The first important step was the context analysis at Country level carried out through questionnaires, scoping tools on EWS, and interactive workshops, which informed a comprehensive stakeholder mapping, guided the constitution of multi-territorial and multi-sectorial working groups (from National Hydrometeorological Services, to River basin and water agencies and civil protection authorities at all the levels). The second step was the design and implementation of a Command Post Exercise (CPX) project to test coordination and communication among all the EWS actors, as well as the activation of the emergency plans and procedures in response to warnings from the national to the local level. This step was instrumental to strengthen inter-agency familiarity and functional capacities of the system, to identify barriers for effective operations, and raise awareness on strategies for EW-EA linkage. The third and final step of the proposed approach consisted in a lessons learned analysis, recognizing gaps and capacities to be strengthened</p> <p>The implementation of this approach in 7 pilot cases in Western Balkans and T&#252;rkiye has highlighted several benefits and challenges, including the effort to achieve a broader and regional perspective by transcending country-specific results. Specifically, the lesson learnt analysis outlined the base of a set of criteria, built on the regional experience, for a general and co-designed path to move towards the integration of early warnings into emergency response planning and civil protection actions. Key learnings and discussions among the involved parties in the approach supported the identification of preliminary recommendations and effective practices. The implementation of pilot cases highlighted that engaging local administrations and establishing cross-institutional partnerships are essential for effective preparedness and the overall strength of the system, confirming that an EWS can be completely hampered by its weakest component.</p>
<p>The FLORIS project aims to study innovative approaches for the development of integrated flood risk scenarios taking into consideration critical specific issues of areas at risk and the consequences of high frequency/low damage events that affect them. High frequency floods still involve and require mitigation actions on the part of civil protection and citizens before floodwaters inundate the land and directly impact assets. These emergency actions can benefit from enhanced protocol development based on realistic scenarios.</p><p>In particular, the main idea is to develop a supporting decision tool for the comparative analysis of disaster reduction strategies in flood risk management. This will have a specific focus on studying the functional vulnerability of critical infrastructure in order to preserve their efficiency during and after hazardous events. This include, hydraulic modelling at a finer scale, vulnerability and damage analysis at single element scale.</p><p>To address the project aims, identification of critical infrastructures that influences both the actions and outcomes of civil protection in flood prone areas and the disruption to the at-risk public, will be undertaken. To achieve the goal, initial steps consist of presenting to, and discussing with, civil protection teams the established approaches already available to them together with those identified by the project team from past research and within the literature. This will identify opportunities to further develop the civil protection protocols via innovative modelling of cascade effects incorporating existing algorithms. The developed procedures for flood risk reduction, taking into account resource management requirements will then be applied in a pilot case study, in the city of Berat, Albania and in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.</p><p>Working with the relevant professionals who are the principal beneficiaries of the project enables protocols to be co-developed to include associated physical, social and resource characteristics particular to the selected location. The main achievements will include enhanced management for flood protection in the beneficiary organisation with increased awareness of the interrelationships both spatially and temporally enhancing management protocols, protocols more closely aligned with existing beneficiaries&#8217; procedures and resources for sustainability and establishing tools that are transferable to other regional and country contexts.</p><p>The main expected output is a suite of tools, embedded in a cascade procedure, able to support various actors (Civil Protection, municipalities, administrations, professionals, etc.) in planning and design measures to improve flood risk management actions under different and variable risk scenarios including climate and global change.</p><p>Acknowledgements</p><p>FLORIS (Innovative tools for improving FLood risk reductiOn stRategIeS) project has received funding from the EUROPEAN COMMISSION - under the 2018 Call Prevention and Preparedness in Civil Protection&#160; (Project number: UCPM-2018-PP-AG&#160; - 826561)</p>
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