Critical infrastructure early warning system and population awareness for multi hazard cascading events

CRISAFE will work towards development of the harmonized and quantified risk assessment methodology to assess the vulnerability of urban infrastructure and population for cascading multi-hazard scenarios, which are common for participating countries (Croatia, Netherlands & Italy). Risk assessment will be based on calculated vulnerability of the flash & river flood protection infrastructure to detect weakest link in the flood protection system under the influence of multiple hazards (heavy rainfall, flooding, earthquake and liquefaction). Project will build upon previous work by the participants in UCPM projects oVERFLOw and CROSScade, which have developed advanced methods of assessing vulnerability of critical infrastructure assets and will integrate these results into risk assessments. This will enable advanced visualization of the scenarios and their implementation in the IT platforms of critical infrastructure managers and first responders. By combining these with the sensor network that provides near real-time information on the identified alerts, a cascading multi-hazard EWS (CHEWS) will be developed. The project thus meets a general objective of the call in achieving a higher level of protection against disasters that may affect several states. By raising the risk awareness among the population by developing strategies for improving public access to cascading risk information, the project addresses a general objective of contributing to raising further awareness of citizens on the risks they face and options for reducing their vulnerability. Two case studies are planned, one in the Netherlands (city of Rotterdam) and the other in Croatia (city of Zagreb), where the outputs will be implemented in the IT platforms of relevant CIMs and first responders. A consortium includes 8 partners who have a proven track record in collaboration in Horizon and UCPM projects, including dynamic SMEs, research institutes, infrastructure owners and first responders.