Copernicus emergency Applications for Resilience addressing businesses’ needs and policy making

The escalating frequency and severity of extreme weather events, induced by climate change, pose significant threats to global societies, economies, and ecosystems. Europe, and more specifically the Mediterranean area, has witnessed a surge in natural disasters resulting in substantial human casualties and economic losses. Despite advancements in disaster risk management, inadequate investment in early warning and detection systems have led to prolonged, costly, and frequent emergency responses, straining resources.

The UNICORN project, started in October 2024, focuses on the development of Copernicus emergency applications, using Earth Observation technologies and data to address the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme events (fires, floods) and geohazards (volcanoes) and their impact on society, the economy and the environment. UNICORN develops tools and applications for early warning, forecasting, and hazard monitoring that enable a resilient society, better-informed emergency services, and effective short-term recovery. It proposes innovative solutions for local authorities, policy makers, citizens, and industries which will increase their preparedness for extreme events and geohazards. UNICORN's approach involves creating state-of-the-art, scalable and transferable services tailored to user needs, pushing technological boundaries for precise, timely, and actionable results from data and knowledge. UNICORN is based on four use cases from different European regions, hazards, target stakeholders, and technologies, through an end user validation method to build a resilient European landscape.

UNICORN's foundation lays on the development of four strategically selected Copernicus emergency applications corresponding in 4 use cases which incorporate specific areas, regions, and countries from the Mediterranean area of Europe that has a long history of natural hazards and extreme events. These use cases through which the applications are implemented, monitored and validated in real world conditions are diverse due to the scale of operation (local, regional, sub-national), the hazards, the type of engaged stakeholders and the applied technologies:

• Flood forecasting integrating Copernicus data and weather forecast fusion - Attica region, Greece.
• Copernicus-based wildfire early detection, mapping and nowcasting - Corsica Island, France.
• High resolution fire danger forecasting - Northwestern Spain and Northern Portugal.
• Lava flow emergency management tool based on Copernicus data merged with numerical modelling - Sicily Island, Italy.

Acknowledgement: "This work has been supported by the European research project UNICORN. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101180172. This article reflects only the authors’ views and the EU Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA) and the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains."