Flood Risk Research and Warning Tools at the European Scale

Abstract

The floods in the rivers Meuse and Rhine in 1993 and 1995 made the European Commission realize that also at Commission level further research on floods – especially in transboundary river catchments - was necessary. This led to the start of a dedicated research project on floods at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in 1997. Following the floods in the Oder river basin in 1997, basin scale scenario studies on flood prevention measures were carried out (De Roo & Schmuck, 2002). Between 2003 and 2008, similar studies were carried out in the Elbe river basin, in response to the 2002 floods (Gierk & De Roo, 2008). In 1999, research started towards the development of the European Flood Alert/Awareness System (EFAS), an operational tool meant to provide the competent authorities in the EU Member States with earlier flood warning information, especially focused on cross-border rivers. During the 2002 floods in the Elbe and Danube, EFAS was operated for the first time. EFAS will be described further below. The large scale floods between 1993 and 2005 across Europe led also to the establishment of the Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risks (“The Floods Directive”), which entered into force on 26 November 2007. This Directive requires Member States to “assess if all water courses and coast lines are at risk from flooding, to map the flood extent and assets and humans at risk in these areas and to take adequate and coordinated measures to reduce this flood risk”. The Directive aims to “reduce and manage the risks that floods pose to human health, the environment, cultural heritage and economic activity”. More recently, increasing concerns on climate change triggered dedicated pan-European assessments of the potential effects of climate change on flood risk in Europe. Furthermore, emerging challenges, such as increased water abstractions where natural water availability may decrease as a consequence of climate change, has triggered the European Commission to initiate in 2012 the “Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water. It will aim “to ensure good quality water in sufficient quantities for all legitimate uses”. This paper, will address the ongoing research and tools developed at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in support of the initiatives mentioned above.