Co-funded by the Union Civil Protection Mechanism, the European Commission’s system dedicated to strengthening cooperation in civil protection, the Innovative tools for improving FLood risk reductiOn stRategIeS (FLORIS) project was dedicated to the study of innovative approaches aimed at developing integrated flood risk scenarios. These scenarios considered specific critical aspects of hazard areas and the consequences of events that cause little damage but occur at high frequency. The aim was to develop decision-support tools for the comparative analysis of flood risk management strategies that can help the different actors involved in planning (from Civil Defense to administrations), taking into account different possible scenarios, including the possible effects of climate change.
The project, which started in January 2019 and whose end, initially scheduled for December 2019, was postponed to December 2021, had three main objectives. The first was the development of modeling to study the cascading effects of flood hazard, so as to improve risk management. In particular, the focus was on studying the vulnerability of critical infrastructure on which to reduce the impact of floods. The second objective was the refinement and application of the approach to plan, for each case study, the protocol to be adopted. Finally, FLORIS aimed to provide the most effective procedures for the management of human resources during emergencies, as a support tool for civil protection agencies.
In addition to improving cooperation among partners, who collaborate by sharing their skills and tools, FLORIS has contributed to increase the awareness of knowledge and procedures in partner countries. Civil Protection agencies and professionals have been able to establish a chain of collaboration where all necessary information on resource management in well-defined flood scenarios is collected and coordinated. The improvement of knowledge and awareness, especially with regard to frequent floods, is of particular importance because at the moment these are not considered in the European Floods Directive (EC 60/2007). In addition, the procedures that FLORIS has developed will provide practical support of the utmost importance for both the public and professionals, for example by identifying alterative access routes to buildings that could be isolated in the event of a flood.
Within FLORIS, CIMA Research Foundation has been working on the development of a platform for the analysis, planning and management of flood-related emergencies. The collected data, although referred to a specific territory and to very frequent events, represent important information for civil protection activities, and will be used to assess the vulnerability of exposed areas to risk and thus improve emergency planning in case of floods at Prefecture level in Berat and Sarajevo. Within the project it was also possible to install a monitoring system composed of three ACRONET stations (two hydrometric and one meteorological) for the measurement of flow and precipitation in the Osum river basin, in order to create the first alerting system at local level in Albania for civil protection purposes. The system has been integrated with the forecasts of the national bulletin and with the Standard Operational Procedures in the Civil Protection Plan of Berat Prefecture.
