Risk-Data-Hub-Austrian-Disaster-Network-Days-European Commission

Intro

Date: 11 – 12 October 2018 Venue: Vienna, Austria

The Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC), launched in September 2015, is a European Commission initiative to support and improve the Science-Policy Interface in the field of Disaster Risk Management. One of the objectives of the DRMKC is to advance technologies and capacities in disaster risk and crisis management. The DRMKC Risk Data Hub is the resource intended to improved access and share of curated EU-wide risk data for fostering Disaster Risk Management.
As a knowledge hub, the Risk Data Hub is expected to be the point of reference for curated EU-wide risk data and adopts the comprehensive framework of policies and guidelines, data sharing initiatives and spatial data infrastructures with the purpose of setting the bases for knowledge for Disaster Risk Management at local, national, regional and EU-wide level.
By providing a multi-sectoral forum to discuss and assess the usability of a Risk Data Hub at national level, a two-day joint workshop under the Austrian Presidency is hosted by Disaster Competence Network Austria (DCNA) in Vienna from 11th to 12th of October 2018,

The DRMKC makes available a GIS web-platform – the Risk Data Hub – intended to improve the access and sharing of curated EU-wide risk data, tools and methodologies for fostering Disaster Risk Management related actions.
As the Risk Data Hub (RDH) and especially its national linking and implementation is still in the development phase, the workshop will make a step forward by defining user requirements and discuss practical compatibility with national datasets and structures.

Objective

Considering the high demand for understanding disaster risk, the two-day joint workshop intents to elaborate the needs at national level for an EU-wide roll-out of risk data hub and is structured in three sessions, half day each.
The first session will welcome the participants with key notes on Disaster Risk Data and related Policies and introduce the methodology and concept behind the Risk Data Hub, linked also with a concrete example of activating the solidarity fund for e.g. flood events. Furthermore, a practical showcase of the RDH country corner functionality with Austrian case-study data and the underlying data management processes, will discuss the practical requirements and implications to link regional scale hazard data to large scale risk indicators.
The second half-day will be divided into three break-out sessions to discuss challenges and future steps, such as data availability and coordination at national level, as well as customization to national needs and the use of data.
In accordance with the multi-risk and multi-hazard approach of Risk Data Hub and to ensure application-specific and concrete outcome of the workshop the break-out sessions will be:

Floods and Landslides:
The session targets the classical topics of natural hazards in particular flood and landslide protection, torrent building, as well as avalanche barrier and technical rock fall protection. Risk data management therefore, is highly dependent on the time scale of the processes to be monitored, which will be discussed in the session answering questions such as:
- How can floods and landslides comprehensively be investigated for hazard / risk assessment and land-use planning?
- Availability of disaster risk data to public – challenges and restrictions?
- How to communicating disaster risk by taking vulnerable groups into consideration?
- How can a risk data hub support activation of EU solidary fund in case of flood events?
Extreme Weather Events:
Extreme Weather events can cause hazardous situation and/or damages. Referring to the objective of a risk assessment, this session does not focus on the extreme meteorological conditions themselves but relates extreme weather events to respective impacts and examines the subsequent implications concerning warnings and operational tasks. Therefore, the session will be framed around the questions:
- What are the impacts of extreme weather – from the local to the European scale?
- Usability of weather data and extreme weather warnings for risk assessments and forensics?
- Which institutional cooperation are required to cope with extreme weather situations and their post-events analysis?
- How can scientific developments and operational work/needs be interlinked?
Critical Infrastructure:
Historical industrial disasters show sufficient evidence that natural hazards can trigger technological disasters and may pose tremendous risks to countries and communities that are unprepared for such risks. In Europe, many vulnerable installations from critical infrastructures are close to rivers, or located in earthquake or wild fire prone areas, or are subject to other kinds of hazards. The session will address to following questions:
- Added value of multi-hazard risk data for spatial and response planning?
- What do we learn and how do we use data from major accidents and near-misses?
- What are the challenges to be faced for policy and science in industrial disaster risk management?

The evening reception at Naturhistorisches Museum will give a unique view on meteorite impact as a natural hazard.

The next day will give insights on disaster risk data for international policies and economy such as insurance industry. Each break-out session will be concluded and discussed to set the next steps for an EU-wide roll-out of Risk Data Hub at national level, based on a close cooperation and information exchange within EU institutions and member state stakeholders.

Agenda