We took inspiration from the last Science for DRM report and innovated the “Gaps Explorer” section of our website!

As a result, we now have a “multi-hazard” page where different actors can learn how to be active and more effective across multiple areas — ranging from “critical infrastructures” and “economic sectors” to “methodologies for disaster risk” or “cultural heritage”.

Policy makers can get insights on how to, for instance, promote and support the implementation and use of optimal adaptation strategies. Practitioners can anticipate common civil protection limitations and how to best navigate them. And scientists may get advice on how to best communicate their findings while citizens can learn how important it can be that they are prepared for outages.

Find out more about how you can make a difference managing disaster risk by following the link to new Gaps Explorer content.

The GIS web application developed by the Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre which hosts, curates and disseminates data, tools and methodologies for Disaster Risk Management (DRM) has just been revamped!

Check out its enhanced user experience, the updated key functionalities, the new reference documentation and get ready to provide us with you feedback at the dedicated hands-on training, on 15 June 2022, which will cover the different modules available in the Risk Data Hub including the methodology underlying the risk assessment module and guidance on how to use the platform for generating analytical reports.

For more details on the new version of the Risk Data Hub, you can also read the last issue of Union Civil Protection Knowledge Network Newsletter.

Registration to the event open within 9th of June here: https://web.jrc.ec.europa.eu/remjrc/screen/meeting/9647/registration-form

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service has been developing a new operational product providing a continuous global, systematic, and automated monitoring of all land surface areas possibly affected by flooding. This new global flood monitoring (GFM) product processes all incoming Sentinel-1 images and analyses them using an ensemble of 3 flood detection algorithms providing a high timeliness and quality of the product. You can find more details on the GFM here.

To introduce this new product the Copernicus Emergency Management Service is pleased to invite you to the GFM Product Release Workshop that will be held on April 28th 2022, 3-4 pm CEST (UTC +2). The workshop, in the form of a webinar, will present the currently available data and product that have been developed as part of the GFM focusing on the high-resolution satellite-based products for flood monitoring at global scale, freely accessible in real-time through GloFAS. To participate in the webinar please register here.

The European Droughts Observatory (EDO) lately issued two new reports, depicting the ongoing critical situation in the western Mediterranean and in the North of Italy, respectively.

The “Drought in western Mediterranean - February 2022” report shows that a large and severe drought has been affecting the western Euro-Mediterranean region. The severe precipitation deficit is already posing a threat to water resources and livestock, while heavy impacts on crops and reservoir storage are expected if the drought conditions will persist. Severely drier than normal conditions are forecasted in the western Euro-Mediterranean region. These forecasts currently represent the main concern, as they point to a possible evolution of the ongoing drought into an extreme event. Monitoring such evolution in the next months is essential for risk and impact assessment.

The “Drought in northern Italy - March 2022” report inform about the severe drought which has been affecting northern Italy and the Po River basin in particular. Dry conditions are related to a persistent lack of precipitation since December 2021. The severe precipitation deficit is already affecting water resources. Water competition from different sectors is likely to start sooner than usual, particularly at the beginning of the irrigation period, usually expected to start in April (e.g. for rice). The lack of precipitation may cause severe impacts as soon as re-growth takes up speed in spring. Drier than normal conditions are forecasted for most of Italy (and southern Europe in general) for the next three months. This makes it less probable that abundant precipitation will bring relief to the current situation, and it rises concerns about widespread and concurrent impacts.