In 2014, AFPCN, which functions as IRDR France, joined a EU funded project ECOSTRESS (Ecological Coastal Strategies and Tools for Resilient European Societies). DG ECHO of the European Commission is providing seventy-five percent (75%) of the funding for this two-year project.
ECOSTRESS is exploring integrated risk prevention and risk management strategies for coastal regions. These complex systems are defined as land regions near the sea comprising all natural and human related elements potentially at risk due to flood.
The project will include (i) a review and analysis of the available frameworks, methodologies and tools which can be readily applied for coastal risk, (ii) the implementation of those in a model system and (iii) their application, though a demonstration project, for the selected hot spots.
Reflecting the four priorities of the EU Call for prevention projects, ECOSTRESS aims at:
- Examining the feasibility and the cost-benefit of risk prevention measures related to the use of wetlands, coastal marine systems and dry lands to naturally mitigate flood. The implications of ecosystem-related decision-making will be analysed (priorities 1 & 4).
- Implementing risks assessment and risk mapping methodologies aiming at integrating the outcomes of risk assessment and eco-system capacity based planning, related to the coastal flood risk, but open to the implementation of multi-risk approaches (priority 2).
- Evaluating the potential to facilitate and support increased coverage of disaster risk governance, both in public risk governance solutions or re-insurance market strategies (priority 3).
The project is led by EUCENTRE, an the Italian non-profit organisation that promotes, supports and sustains training and research in the field of seismic risk mitigation. It was founded in 2003 by the Italian National Department of Civil Protection, the University of Pavia, the Italian Institute of Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) and the Institute of Advanced Study of Pavia (IUSS). Other partners are an Italian research centre for sociology and Deltares, a Dutch is independent institute for applied research, responsible for the maintenance and development of the operational forecasting models and information system of the Dutch national government body for flood and drought crisis management.
AFPCN’s role in the project is primarily to work on stakeholder views and involvement, including regional planners. As such, AFPCN are involved in the initial and final stages of the project, when additional applications will be discussed, for example in the Somme delta and on the Atlantic Coast.
For more information, see: http://www.ecostress.eu/