Stakeholder meeting on European action programme on flood risk management 21 January 2005 Improving information exchange: Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” France and JRC

Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Context Objectives Activity sheet Schedule Participants In the subject of improving information exchange which is one item of the European action programme, I would like to present to you a new initiative aiming at knowledge exchange on flood forecasting. Even if this group is already known by many of you today, I will explain you the context of the initiative, its objectives, the activity sheet of the group together with its schedule and the participants.

Development and testing of a European Flood Alert System (EFAS) - JRC Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Context June 2003: « Best practices in flood prevention, protection and mitigation » agreed by Water Directors A need for exchange of information, a requirement to share common culture Development and testing of a European Flood Alert System (EFAS) - JRC In June 2003 a European working group set up by the Water Directors in 2002, produced the “Best practices in flood prevention, protection and mitigation”, agreed by the Water Directors. This document is highly complete and full of innovative practices. But during its work, the group recognised: - a real need for exchange of information, approaches and technical knowledge between European countries; - a requirement to share common culture on mitigating flood risk, while recognising diverse national situations; - disparity of knowledge available in each country, depending on the working topic. The Water Directors have also expressed an interest in the work on flood protection being carried on. Furthermore, in this context the document of the water directors also mentions the development and testing of a European Flood Alert System (EFAS) that is being carried out at the DG Joint Research Centre (JRC). Ad de Roo EFAS presented to us a few minutes ago. The project I present to you is aiming at addressing this problem. EFAS is aimed to complement Member States activities by providing information about forecasted flood events with a lead-time between 3-10 days in advance for all large river basins in Europe.

November 2004 - JRC and France Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Context November 2004 - JRC and France a European Union level specific interest group for enabling exchange of experience on the topic of “flood forecasting, early warning”. To address this, JRC and France took the initiative to set up a network at European level, to unable know-how and experience exchanges and at end to improve our ability in flood forecasting. For that purpose, this network is focused on operating tools which are or should be implemented in practice by us in Europe. It’s not a research network; it’s an experience exchange network Then, in November 2004, JRC and France asked for participation to the first specific interest exchange group, at the EU level, focused on flood forecasting and early warning

To pool practical knowledge Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Objectives An exchange circle : To link leading national or international centres or agencies, competent and operating in the topic To pool practical knowledge To help improve collectively competencies in flood forecasting To function as a dynamic feedback forum for the EFAS initiative With this aim to exchange on operating ability, the general objective of this exchange circle is to compare and improve flood forecasting methods used in Europe. For that the activity of the group will seek to 4 main lines/objectives

To draw a state-of-play of flood forecasting in Europe including EFAS Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Activity sheet To draw a state-of-play of flood forecasting in Europe including EFAS To identify the needs to fulfil and the gaps to fill in view of improving flood forecasting To identify the most important fields to work on in order to improve our know-how To propose common concrete actions to achieve this To achieve these objectives which drive to improve flood forecasting, the exchange group will endorse the following activity sheet consisting in 4 steps: As you see the final step is to propose concrete actions to improve flood forecasting in Europe.

Four main themes to investigate on flood forecasting: Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Activity sheet Four main themes to investigate on flood forecasting: Flood monitoring and detection practices Flood forecasting procedures & organisation Information for triggering flood warnings Current state and future needs of flood forecasting methodologies To study flood forecasting, the group will investigate four main themes monitoring and detection of floods This is the first stage in the flooding forecasting process: it consists in meteorological and hydrological surveillance, flood detection. flooding forecasting Second stage in the process: what use is done of data from the surveillance system to draw up a forecast? For evaluate the flood risk; for modelling; what is the forecasting organisation? information for triggering flooding warnings This item is focused on the information provided to people, authorities, emergency services, and its comprehensibility and the circulation of it. Third stage: once the flooding forecast has been drawn up, it is provided to the authorities that are going to take decisions for warnings and actions and made available to the population (assuming that there are already local, regional or transational contingency plans). The efficiency of the information made available with a view to the triggering of flooding warnings depends on it being immediately understandable and the efficiency with which it is circulated. improvement in the methodology Finally, we will assess the methodological and operational support for research and the feedback from experiences . These 4 themes will be investigated by each of the circle’s members when drawing the state-of-play and the need to fulfil.

December 2004 : launch of the circle Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Schedule December 2004 : launch of the circle Before mid-February 2005: drawing the state-of-play and needs – each member with the co-pilots 21/22 March 2005 : workshop in Toulouse to pool the results of state-of-play and identify the needs to fulfil To achieve this work, what is the schedule? The work of the group was launched in December 2004. From that date everybody is working on drawing the state-of-play of flood forecasting and the needs to fulfil in each country. This part has to be finish before mid-February. Then the synthesis of this work will be studied at the occasion of the first workshop of the circle, planned to take place in March 2005 in Toulouse, France. The workshop will also seek to debate and decide on actions to endorse to improve flood forecasting. This workshop will be the first milestone of the work. But to ensure the success of this workshop, each participant of the circle has to work actively for its side, from now to February.

Report to the Water Directors Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” and after Report to the Water Directors June 2005 End 2005: to identify concrete actions to carry out together in order to improve flood forecasting in Europe And after? Once we will have identified the most important fields to work on in order to improve our know-how, the second main milestone, coming from the spring workshop, will be to select the first actions we want to endorse together in order to make progress in flood forecasting. We will report our work at least to the Water Directors. To achieve these ambitious aim, the more we will be in the circle, the best we will progress.

National centres or institutes Specific interest exchange group “flood forecasting, early warning” Participants National centres or institutes meteorological and hydrological operating in flood forecasting Bel, Est, Fin, Ger, Gre, Hun, Ita, Lux, Neth, Nor, Pol, Rom, Sk, Sp, JRC, Fr 28 focal points Welcome! Contacts: Ad de Roo (JRC): ad.de-roo@jrc.it Frédérique Martini (France): frederique.martini@ecologie.gouv.fr So far, the circle consists in 28 centres, either from meteorological or hydrological community, coming from 16 states. If you want to join us, please contact on of the focal points of the project either Ad de Roo from JRC or myself. Thank you for attention.