ERC

Carried out between 2010 and 2014 in collaboration with the Italian Civil Protection Department , UNDP-Barbados & the Eastern Carribean and the Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), the ERC project aimed to strengthen, at the national and the regional level, the capacities of states and communities involved in the Caribbean to prevent, respond to and reduce risk from extreme events, and improve resilience to climate change.

To this aim, a network of real-time decision support centres was designed for Early-Warning and civil protection activities in case of extreme hydrometeorological events. This network includes the use of ICT tools for the rapid acquisition and dissemination of information to affected communities. From a technical point of view, CIMA Research Foundation has provided its situation room to monitor, through the DEWETRA platform, the functioning of all communication flows and activities implemented within the project.

Our researchers have also been involved in monitoring ( ACRONET control units, DEWETRA platform, monitoring models of extreme hydro-meteorological phenomena) the formation of tropical storms capable of turning into hurricanes capable of turning into hurricanes. From a technical point of view, this has been achieved through the consolidation of CIMH’s capabilities, both in terms of forecasting (thanks to the implementation of a limited area meteorological model in the Caribbean area) and capacity building (thanks to specific training on Italian good practices).

In addition, as a final event, a three-day national exercise in Grenada was carried out to assess the warning and monitoring systems and the functioning of the risk management and volunteer and civil protection systems implemented during the project.