Funded by the European Commission, the European Drought Observatory for Resilience and Adaptation (EDORA) project aims to improve the European Union’s drought resilience and adaptive capacity. To do so, it intends to improve drought risk assessment at different scales, aggregate data on impacts across sectors, and promote linkages and the establishment of drought observatories in member states-all working at the level of the European Drought Observatory.
Alterations in rainfall and rising temperatures due to climate change are affecting the risk of droughts. These may, in some areas of the continent, become more frequent and intense, limiting the availability and quality of fresh water. Therefore, in line with the EU Adaptation Strategy, EDORA project aims to help build resilience and adaptation to drought risk for Member States. To this end, the project wants to create a database on drought impacts and a risk atlas covering the different sectors affected by drought (from agriculture to energy production, from inland navigation to domestic water supply). These products will contribute to improve the assessment of possible drought impacts and risk.
CIMA Research Foundation, leader of the technical and scientific support, ensures the coordination and good governance of the project. We support the implementation of the European drought impact database. We are also involved in the development and implementation of a methodology for drought risk assessment that can consider the different sectors that the project intends to cover, and we are responsible for the creation of the risk atlas. This requires the production of maps and risk indicators at a pan-European level, the development and testing of methodologies to aggregate risk assessments, and the production of all necessary user material for the use of the atlas. In addition, CIMA Research Foundation is responsible for communication and consultation activities to promote stakeholder participation, facilitate knowledge transfer, incorporate the knowledge gained in the project into networks of experts and disseminate the results to the general public.
