Early warning Demonstration of pan-European rainfall-induced impact forecasts – the EDERA project

Heavy rain and convective storms trigger a number of hazards (floods, landslides, debris flows…) that have impacts on people’s life and goods. In these situations, Civil Protection Agencies (CPAs) face multiple challenges in their decision-making processes such as the absence of multi-hazard forecasts or difficulty in translating hazards forecasts in impact-based decisions, or the coordination between CPAs during extreme and/or large-scale events affecting multiple regions and neighbouring countries.

The EDERA project, funded by the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, focuses on the integration of real-time pan-European forecasts of storm and heavy rainfall impacts in the Early Warning Systems of CPAs. The main objective of the project is assessing the added value of these products during an 18-months demonstration in collaboration with end users.

The study focuses on the evaluation of the quality of the hazard and impact forecasts during recent events at two different scales: (i) at the European scale (analysing the skill of the products to identify/anticipate the occurrence of the most significant events), and (ii) in two pilot sites (one focused in Finland and the other one covering Spain and Portugal), analysing their usefulness to support emergency management with the participation of relevant authorities.