By providing a new method of extreme value estimation and improving radar products, KNMI is involved in an Interreg project to help being better prepared for future flood events.
Following the floods in 2021 in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, 11 partners from these countries have decided to join forces to combat flooding and improve water security. The climate is changing, and extreme weather situations will unfortunately become more and more frequent. That is why investments are being made to warn the population about the risks of impending floods.
The aim of the EMfloodResilience project is to improve the euregional exchange of information and to broaden cooperation between public river management services. The main objective is to take advantage of the benefits of the location of the EMR during major crises and thus develop a concerted methodology to analyze the effects of the measures taken and their impacts on the EMR and its citizens. With the ultimate goal to become better prepared for the next extreme flood event and thereby prevent future loss of life and socio-economic damage. Read more about the project on: https://emfloodresilience.eu/
This cross-border cooperation project has been made possible thanks to a contribution from the Interreg program amounting to a total of 6.9 million euros. Project proposals for all these aspects have been submitted and approved by the Interreg program authority for an amount of more than €8 million. The projects will run until 31 December 2023.
The flood events of July 2021 were caused by very extreme precipitation events in the Meuse basin. To be better prepared for a next flood event it is therefore important to 1) better understand and estimate the extremity of precipitation events and 2) provide early warning of events that can cause potential flood hazard. In the EMFloodResilience Interreg project, is involved in two different work packages that focus on these two aspects.
Estimation of precipitation extremes is difficult. Only the very extreme events result in flooding and these extremes occur with very low frequency. Because large-scale measurements have only been done for several decades, there is limited information of precipitation extremes available in observations. Besides, observational timeseries are representative for past and present climate, whereas information of future extremes is also desired. In the EMFloodResilience project, the KNMI is investigating the use of data from the regional RACMO climate model for estimation of precipitation extremes. These datasets are a factor 10 times longer than observations (providing more information about extremes) and are representative for future climates as well.
Additionally, early warning of precipitation extremes is essential for e.g. impact reduction. Radar products play a very important role in such early warning and good accuracy of these products is therefore essential. In the EMFloodResilience project, the KNMI is working to improve radar products in order to reduce underestimation of extreme events. This is done by developing new algorithms and identifying ground stations for combined gauge-radar products. Not only will these efforts improve the real-time presentation of precipitation, but they will also lead to improvements of historical products which can be used in climatological and hydrological analysis.
Service Public Wallonie (SPW) is an associate partner of this project. They appreciate this initiative and will attribute, based on their competences and capabilities, if possible and asked for.
The EMfloodResilience project is being carried out within the context of Interreg V-A Euregio MeuseRhine and is 90% funded by the European Regional Development Fund.