Highlights from the CEMS 2nd Global Flood Forecasting and Monitoring Meeting

On 8 and 9 February 2023, the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) organised the 2nd Global Flood Forecasting and Monitoring Meeting, held online.  



More than 500 participants attended the event over the two days. It brought together professionals and researchers in flood forecasting and monitoring to discuss the latest advances in the field. The workshop was highly interactive, with several sessions focused on the latest developments of the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) and the Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) tool. The speakers and the participants also discussed about data access, use cases, applications, and their contribution to the United Nations #EarlyWarning4All initiative.
Two IGNITE Talks sessions were organised, providing the opportunity for 13 representatives of related initiatives to introduce their use cases and experiences using GloFAS and/or GFM data.
Finally, the workshop format included interactive discussions, booths, and poster presentations in Gather.Town, a new web-conferencing software allowing participants to connect with other community members while moving in an innovative and interactive virtual environment.

On the first day, two sessions were specifically dedicated to discussing GloFAS, its benefits and its applications. The presentations also covered the forthcoming GloFAS v4.0 updates and how they will improve the current system. The organising team also emphasised the growing number of registered users  – which has grown more than fivefold since its operational release in 2018 - within the GloFAS portal was emphasised. This shows an increasing interest and confidence in its usefulness.

The sessions provided a comprehensive overview of the system’s importance in the early warning ecosystem. Likewise, the amount of precious feedback received from the users will contribute to setting the priorities for future developments.