Last week, CENTAUR participated in the 4th annual Global Flood Forecasting and Monitoring Meeting, organised by the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS).
The two-day event brought together experts to discuss the latest developments in the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) and the Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) tool, along with the ways in which their data are being applied in practice.
On 2 April, CENTAUR contributed to the session titled ‘Short talks: GloFAS and GFM use cases and applications’. Representing the project, Simone Riccardi presented an overview of CENTAUR and outlined its current progress. He explained that the project has now entered the ‘hot phase’, a period focused on testing its tools and indicators through evolving scenarios. This process is important for assessing and validating the indicators developed within the project in an operational setting.
As part of his presentation, Riccardi highlighted that the team has developed two composite indexes and eleven indicators for urban floods.
One of these is the Flood Early Warning Index, which identifies areas at high risk of extreme rainfall up to five days in advance. By combining meteorological forecasts with high-resolution urban flood maps for various return periods, the index supports more timely and targeted emergency planning. These outputs will provide valuable support to emergency responders by helping them anticipate the scale of potential impacts and prepare accordingly.
Presentation of the Flood Early Warning Index at the CEMS 4th Global Flood Forecasting & Monitoring Meeting, 2-3 April 2025.
In addition, Riccardi introduced the Flood Impact Index, which is designed to assess the extent of damage from urban flooding. This index brings together multiple indicators to classify flood impacts into three categories: low, medium, and high. It is intended to support civil protection authorities in prioritising response and recovery activities based on the level of disruption.
Presentation of the Flood Impact Index at the CEMS 4th Global Flood Forecasting & Monitoring Meeting, 2-3 April 2025.
During the meeting, it was also announced that a new case study, referred to as a ‘cold-hot’ case, has been added to CENTAUR’s use case portfolio. This case focuses on the floods which occurred in Valencia, Spain, in late October 2024. This case will provide further opportunity to test the tools and observe how they perform under different conditions.
One of CENTAUR’s objectives is to integrate the tools developed into the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) product portfolio, particularly the mapping portfolio and European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) map viewer. The meeting provided a timely opportunity to present this progress within the wider context of CEMS developments in the flood forecasting and monitoring field.
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