The IPA FLOODS project (Instrument for Pre-Accession for Disaster Risk Assessment and Mapping) is part of the Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA) programs aimed at strengthening the political, legal and technical structures of EU candidate countries or potential candidates in the Western Balkans. The beneficiary countries involved are: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia (for IPA FLOODS lot 1 only), Kosovo*, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. The project is funded by the European Commission/ DG ECHO, to increase the capacity of the beneficiary countries to ensure proper flood risk management at national, regional and EU level.
The program is divided into two phases: a first phase, completed in 2016, was aimed at supporting the beneficiary countries in addressing the challenges set by the implementation of the EU Floods Directive; a second phase, which will end in 2018, aims to increase capacities for flood preparedness and response through the establishment of multinational civil protection modules with high capacity pumping supplies (HCP) and flood containment tools (FC).
Among the objectives of IPA FLOODS there is the assessment of the legal and institutional framework of each beneficiary country in terms of implementation and harmonization of the Floods Directive. For this purpose, CIMA Research Foundation has been assisting public administrations to facilitate the process of transposition with the development of National Flood Programs or flood risk management guidelines. Thanks to the creation of the Flood Risk Information System based on the myDewetra platform, it was also possible to work nationally and regionally in terms of mapping Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment or Flood Hazard and Risk Maps, in accordance with the directive guidelines.
A further activity has involved the creation of a National Flood Catalogue based on the FloodCat technology, adopted within IPA FLOODS in Croatia, and developed by our researchers through a participatory approach consultation involving more than 50 different institutions.