Scientific Output

Intro

One of the core principles of the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre is to foster knowledge and innovation for mitigating disaster risks and coping with hazards. By pooling of information and granting access to scientific results and expertise, the DRMKC strives to boost transfer of research outputs to end-users and to facilitate the task of making sense of existing knowledge.

Video series "Science for Disasters explained in 2 minutes"

At the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre we’re working to anticipate, respond and support the recovery from disasters such as floods, droughts or wildfires. In a time of (excess of) information, it becomes increasingly important that those capable of making a difference — from policy makers to practitioners, scientists and citizens — get the right information straight from the source (reducing the noise and misunderstandings that often arise) so more lives can be saved and impacts reduced.

At the same time, these disaster events are becoming increasingly frequent and severe and as such, it is crucial that scientists/practitioners know the European Commission tools and software that they can use. Plus, a recent Eurobarometer on “What Europeans think about science and technology” reveals EU citizens (61%) think scientists working in the public sector are the most qualified to explain the impact of scientific and technological developments”. Don’t we own them that?

In this video series we aim to create short videos focused on new scientific outputs, about various types of hazards (e.g. wildfires, droughts, floods) or platforms/services/datasets (e.g. the Global Human Settlement Layer, GHSL’s new resolution capabilities or the Risk Data Hub). The idea is to convey key messages on new scientific developments relevant to DRM, in a short, specific, plain language. Each video is designed around the same fundamental questions:

How would you explain the impact of the main findings on the life of your friends or family? (interest/proximity)
What is the problem/issue that these findings will solve and how? (relevance)
How many people will benefit from this new solution to the existing problem and how will this change their life? (impact)
Why now? (timeliness)

We hope these videos will turn out useful for inspiring and engaging with other scientists and also for bringing our scientists closer to the European citizens, using their voice and authority to present their findings in a clear, simple language.

EDO - The European Drought Observatory

This video series is part of the building blocks of the Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network’s Science Pillar, produced by the Joint Research Centre’s Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre. Droughts can severely affect ecosystems and key socio-economic sectors, but analysing droughts remains challenging as their slow evolution makes them difficult to fully characterise, model, and predict in space and time. The European Drought Observatory (EDO) uses data from ground weather stations, satellites, hydrological models, and weather and climate forecasts to monitor and predict droughts. EDO cooperates at multiple scales to further develop drought prediction, and impact and risk assessment to support better drought management in the EU and worldwide.

Original video page

River flood maps for Europe: A new science article explained by the scientist

We present a set of hazard maps for river flooding for Europe and the Mediterranean basin. The maps depict inundation extent and depth for different flood scenarios and are based on hydrological and hydrodynamic models driven by observed climatology. The maps can identify two-thirds of the flood extent reported by official flood maps, with increasing skill for higher-magnitude floods. The maps are used for evaluating present and future impacts of river floods

For more information, please see:
URL: https://essd.copernicus.org/articles/14/1549/2022/

Original video page

Wildfire–atmosphere interaction index for extreme-fire behaviour

During the last 20 years extreme wildfires have challenged firefighting capabilities. Often, the prediction of the extreme behaviour is essential for the safety of citizens and firefighters. Currently, there are several fire danger indices routinely used by firefighting services, but they are not suited to forecast extreme-wildfire behaviour at the global scale.

For more information, please see:
URL: https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/22/509/2022/

Original video page

Publications

The scientific publications proposed in this repository are based on a selection of papers, reports and policy briefs from 2019 to present, covering different research domains and policy areas. The majority of the publications have been produced by the scientists of the Joint Research Centre and are available for download from the JRC publications Repository.

This page will be regularly updated and enriched also with relevant scientific publications, reports and studies from other Directorates-General of the European Commission.