EMS INFORMATION BULLETIN Nr 134

20/10/2020

EMSR467 Flood in Alpes-Maritimes, France & EMSR468 Flood in Piedmont region, Italy EMS INFORMATION BULLETIN Nr 134

THE COPERNICUS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SERVICE

Heavy rainfall and fierce winds in the Italian and French Alps damaged infrastructure and claimed nine lives this October. The national civil response authorities, those charged with disaster response and management, of both Italy and France deployed the European Commission’s Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) to provide near real-time satellite maps and geospatial analysis of the floods.

CEMS flood prediction leads to early warnings The CEMS Flood Early Warning and Monitoring component picked up a signal for incoming riverine and flash floods on the 28 September, 5 days before the first major flood event in Italy. The forecast remained persistent and 5 notifications were sent out the following day to national authorities responsible for flood warning. Several notifications followed in subsequent days (see Figure below) to inform authorities of the predicted conditions.

EFAS forecast from 01.10.2020 00:00 for the north of Italy; hydrograph shows the forecast for the river Sesia (blue triangular signs = flash flood notifications; orange and red triangular signs = riverine flood notifications)

Floods in France (EMSR467) On the night of 2 October, red warnings were issued by France’s national central forecasting centre for extreme weather. Heavy rainfall occurred over the Alpes Maritimes (the roya river, the vesubie river, the tinée river and the Var river) inducing several damages over infrastructures and buildings. CEMS Rapid Mapping was activated on behalf of the Operational Center for Interministerial Crisis Management (C.O.G.I.C.) on 3 October. On the same day, two first estimate products were provided to help response authorities assess the initial and potential long-term damage to the region. Two days later, CEMS Rapid Mapping delivered delineation products over 3 areas that showed, with higher accuracy, the extent of the flood. Finally, two grading products were produced for two towns to assess and grade damage to buildings and transport infrastructure.

Floods in Italy (EMSR468) In the early hours of 3 October, an intense weather disturbance affected the North of Italy, with unprecedented rainfall and strong winds. Both red and orange alerts were issued by Italy’s regional and National Civil Protection. The Liguria region reported the most severe damages.

Nearby, the amount of the precipitation recorded exceeded the historical rate set in 1958 for the northern and western part of the Piedmont region. Intense rainfall caused the overflow of several rivers, including the Sesia river, which led to flooding in adjacent populated areas, the interruption of roads and the collapse of a bridge.

On 4 October, the Italian authorised used (Presidency of the Council of Ministers - Department of Civil Protection) requested the activation of the service. On the same day, a first estimate product was delivered showing a rough estimate of the extent of flooding. The flood was monitored during the following days over 3 areas. In total, CEMS Rapid Mapping produced 6 maps to support disaster response authorities. This included first estimate, delineation, and grading products.

All of the products can be found on the activation pages:  EMSR467: Flood in Alpes-Maritimes, France  EMSR468: Flood in Piedmont region, Italy

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE COPERNICUS EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT SERVICE (EMS)

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS)1, one of the six Copernicus services, provides information for emergency response in relation to different types of disasters, including meteorological hazards, geophysical hazards, deliberate and accidental man-made disasters and other humanitarian disasters, as well as prevention, preparedness, response and recovery activities. Beneficiary end users of EMS include entities and organisations at regional, national, European and international level actors in the field of civil protection and humanitarian aid. CEMS consists of two main components, as outlined below:

1. The CEMS Mapping component provides, upon activation by Authorised Users2, timely and accurate information derived from satellite or airborne image data, during all phases of the disaster management cycle. The information generated can be used as provided (e.g. as digital or printed map outputs), or further combined with other data sources (e.g. as digital feature sets in a geographic information system) to support geospatial analysis and decision-making processes by disaster managers. The following three modules are in place: ● Rapid Mapping consists of the provision of geospatial information in support of emergency management activities immediately following a disaster. Different types of maps are produced: the Reference product to ascertain the situation before the event, the First Estimate product and the Delineation product to assess the geographical extent of the event with respectively a rough or detailed assessment, or the Grading product to evaluate the magnitude and impact of the damage resulting from the event. ● Risk & Recovery Mapping consists of the provision of geospatial information in support of disaster management activities that are not related to immediate emergency response but rather to predisaster risk assessment or post-disaster recovery monitoring. This applies to activities dealing with prevention, preparedness, disaster risk reduction and recovery phases. ● Validation is tailored to the on-demand verification of a sample of outputs produced by the above two mapping modes, support services, and the early warning services (see below). It includes external quality control, validation of thematic information content and comparison with alternative information sources related to the specific emergency context. 2. CEMS Early Warning and Monitoring component provides early warning, risk and impact assessment, and monitoring of specific natural hazards. Currently this component addresses floods, forest fires and droughts, as follows:

1 https://emergency.copernicus.eu/ 2 Authorised Users include the National Focal Points (NFPs) of the EU Member States and countries participating in the Copernicus programme, as well as European Commission services and the European External Action Service (EEAS), including the EU Delegations. Interested Users may trigger the service by sending a Service Request Form (SRF) directly to the European Response Coordination Centre (ERCC): [email protected].

● The European and Global Flood Awareness Systems (EFAS & GloFAS) provide complementary flood forecast information to relevant stakeholders supporting flood risk management at national, regional and global level. Registered Users have access to the full functionality of EFAS & GloFAS. ● The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) monitors forest fire activity in NRT, in Europe, Middle East and North Africa, and supports wildfire management at national and regional scales. Globally, the JRC leads development of the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS). ● The European and Global Drought Observatories (EDO & GDO) provide drought- relevant information and early warnings for Europe and globally, publishing short analytical reports in the case of imminent droughts, and connecting drought data providers and users from global to regional levels.

The Copernicus programme

Copernicus, the European Earth Observation and Monitoring Programme, is served by dedicated satellites (the family of Copernicus Sentinels) and a set of Contributing Missions (additional satellites from existing commercial and national agencies). Since the launch of Sentinel-1A in 2014, the European Union set in motion a process to place a constellation of almost 20 more satellites in orbit before 2030. Today, seven fully operational Sentinel satellites (Sentinel-1A and -B, Sentinel-2A and -B, Sentinel-3A and -B and Sentinel-5P) are in orbit to continually provide operational satellite information. This satellite data is complemented by and validated with in situ data. Six Copernicus Services transform the full, free and open data into value-added information by processing and analysing the data to transform them into services and products such as informative maps, data sets and reports. These six services are: 1. The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service 2. The Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service 3. The Copernicus Land Monitoring Service 4. The Copernicus Climate Change Service 5. The Copernicus Emergency Management Service 6. The Copernicus Security Service

Copernicus is coordinated and managed by DG GROW in the European Commission. It is implemented in partnership with the EU Member States, the European Space Agency (ESA), the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), EU Agencies and Mercator Ocean. The European Commission Joint Research Centre offers the technical support of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service whilst the Emergency Response Coordination Centre of DG ECHO assists civil protection actors with the handling of the EMS mapping requests on a 24/7 basis.

For more information

Copernicus website: copernicus.eu

Copernicus Emergency Management Service website: emergency.copernicus.eu

On Twitter @CopernicusEMS