Funded by the European Union and coordinated by the Civil Protection Department, the PRO NEWS project aims to support Albania in the process of strengthening the flood prevention system.
The project started in January 2017 and its end, initially scheduled for November 2018, has been postponed to August 2021. The project revolved around five different areas of intervention, which together aimed to support the Albanian National Civil Protection Agency (Agjencia Kombëtare and Mbrojtjes Civile) in flood risk management . The first area of intervention was dedicated to the implementation of the legislative and institutional framework concerning flood management and civil protection. Following the redaction of risk management planning guidelines, developed in a conjoint effort with the Albanian Civil Protection, the plans of 11 prefectures have been revised and updated and a round of Table Top Exercises was delivered to all the prefectures. The second was focused to the development of risk maps, in accordance with the EU Floods Directive, for five of the main national water basins. Thirdly, the project improved the Albanian Early Warning System and integrate it into the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS), the European Commission’s flood prevention system. The fourth area of intervention was the dissemination of good practices and correct behavior in the event of flooding, through information and awareness campaigns aimed at citizens. Finally, PRO NEWS supported the Albanian institutions in rehabilitating the Automatic Weather Station network, thus allowing the CP Agency to use critical data for the monitoring in real time of meteorological events.
CIMA Research Foundation participated in all the different areas of intervention of the project. It provided its expertise for the necessary changes to national legislation and supported emergency planning to improve the level of institutional response in the case of extreme events. In addition, CIMA Research Foundation was responsible for the mapping of areas at risk and works on the implementation of warning systems through the strengthening of the network of weather stations and the implementation of forecasting models.
