The aim of the LIFE + Environmental Policy & Governance FLIRE Project is the combined, effective and robust risk assessment and management of both flash floods and forest fires, using state of art tools, technologies and methods and taking into account prevention, adaptation and interaction issues. The area of application of this approach is a typically Mediterranean peri-urban area in Eastern Attica region (Greece) that extends over approximately 200 km2. This area underwent rapid and uncontrolled urbanization during the last decades and is particularly prone both to flash floods and forest fires resulting in its gradual but dire ecological degradation.
The main objectives of the LIFE + ENV FLIRE Project include:
– The development of a Weather Information Management Tool (WIMT) that will receive short-term weather forecasting information and will dynamically take into account local conditions to classify weather conditions as of potential risk for floods or fires.
– The development of a near real-time flood risk assessment and management tool which will include a catchment modelling component, an urban modelling component and an Early Flood Warning System. This tool will receive the flood risk information from the WIMT and activate, if necessary, the corresponding Early Warning System (EWS).
– The development of a near real-time forest fire risk assessment and management tool which will include a fire modelling component and an Early Fire Warning System. It will receive forest fire risk information and similarly to the near real-time flood risk management tool will activate, if necessary, the corresponding EWS.
– The development of a planning tool for flood risk assessment and management which will use the catchment modelling and urban modelling components of the near real-time flood management tool and further integrate an urban development modelling component and an optimization algorithm for flood risk management.
– The integration of these components into a common system (a Decision Support System Tool (DSS Tool)), supporting decisions for integrated flood and forest fire management.
– The implementation and testing of the system in Eastern Attica.
– The extraction of transferable lessons to ensure the project’s uptake in other similar regions.
Partners:
1. Imperial College of London (ICL)
2. Research Institute for GEO-Hydrological Protection-Italian National Research Council(IRPI)
3. National Observatory of Athens (NOA)
4. ALGOSYSTEMS SA (ALGO)
5. Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Institute of applied and computational Mathematics(FORTH)
FLIRE project is co-financed by LIFE financial instrument of the European Union