Pearl - Preparing for Extreme and Rare Events in Coastal Regions (PAP014763)

Código

PAP014763

Autores

Giacomo Teruggi, Zoran Vojinovic, Christos Makropoulos, Natasa Manojlovic

Tema

Floods in a changing climate

Resumo

Coastal floods are regarded as one of the most dangerous and harmful of all natural disasters. Rapid urbanization in coastal areas combined with climate change and poor governance can lead to a significant increase in the risk of local pluvial flooding coinciding with high water levels in rivers and high tide or storm surges from the sea, posing a greater risk of devastation in coastal communities.There is a need to improve forecasting, prediction and early warning capabilities using state of art science and technology to help policy makers and emergency services to develop robust risk reduction strategies. However, forecasting and prediction is only part of the answer. Of equal importance is the ability to effectively warn the population in areas that will be affected. All warning systems feature multiple lines of communication enabling emergency messages to be sent to the emergency and rescue services, as well as to warning systems for the general public. For such systems to be effective, it is essential that they are integrated into broader management strategies and supported by appropriate institutional and organizational arrangements. Therefore, preparing for effective response to extreme events not only involves technology but also significantly social, economic, organizational and political considerations. Currently there is a clear indication of a lack of interaction between social aspects and technical measures and this appears to be a major hindrance for solving some of the greatest problems associated with floods and flood-related disasters.To overcome these shortcomings, and based on the belief that problems are best solved by attempting to correct or eliminate root causes, as opposed to merely addressing the immediately obvious symptoms, the PEARL project aims at developing adaptive risk management strategies for coastal communities focusing on extreme hydro-meteorological events, with a multidisciplinary approach integrating social, environmental and technical research and innovation. It takes the holistic view of risk as an essentially sociotechnical problem which concerns not only technology but also our values and our beliefs.