This year’s Copernicus emergency management services annual conference focused on how early-warning and monitoring data – on droughts, wildfires, floods, emergency mapping and population exposure – can support a wide range of policies and help build disaster risk management strategies.
These services are provided by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and its Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS).The JRC also organised the conference which took place on 11 October 2024.
In the first part of the event, JRC experts demonstrated how CEMS has been delivering early-warning and monitoring insights on floods, wildfires, and droughts. This data is used by many in the civil protection community, including Member States and Participating States of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, as well as other research organisations.
Topics included, how on-demand maps and disaster warnings help prepare against emergencies in Europe and in responding to them, how to build water resilience by using early-warning data for drought monitoring, and how new developments in science and AI help the EU with better weather forecasts. Participants also looked into insights from the EU 2023 Forest Fires Report and the 2024 wildfire season.
In the second part, practical breakout rooms gave attendees an opportunity to learn how to use CEMS dashboards to extract personalised data.
For those who missed the conference, it is possible to watch it on YouTube: Copernicus Emergency Annual Conference 2024. In addition, the JRC will soon publish a follow-up article on the event in the ‘Copernicus Observer’, which will focus on how CEMS has evolved over the last years and what is to come. See News | Copernicus.
Workshop round 1 (main stage)From river flows to flood maps – flood related data Presentation by Peter Salamon and Stafania Grimaldi, Joint Research Centre, European Commission. This session focused on accessing the following three flood-related data through the Copernicus image management service:
Salamon highlighted that available data includes: River discharge, snow water equivalent, soil wetness index, and runoff (surface plus subsurface). He noted that EFAS is the first operational pan-European flood forecasting and monitoring system and supports preparedness for anticipated and ongoing floods in Europe, particularly in large transnational river basins. GloFAS is designed to support preparatory measures for flood events worldwide.
Salamon stated that available data includes: Observed flood extent, reference water mask (shows permanent water bodies to distinguish them from floodwaters), affected land cover and population, likelihood, and exclusion mask (filters out areas where flood analysis is not applicable). GFM provides a continuous global and systematic monitoring thanks to Sentinel-1 SAR imagery which enables all day and all-weather flood monitoring.
Salamon stressed that available data includes: Observed flood extent, estimated flood water depth, and impact. He further pointed out that on-demand mapping consists of two elements:
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Workshop round 2 (main stage)Keeping a watchful eye on forest fires – How the EU Response and Coordination Centre uses Copernicus Emergency data A presentation by Hector Alfaro Fernandez – Wildfires Focal Point, Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) According to Alfaro, the ERCC uses the European Forest Fires Information (EFFIS) to get data of situational awareness for Europe and the Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) for a worldwide view in situational awareness. Both systems create a current situation viewer, statistics and weather forecasts. Alfaro further gave an overview of data monitoring active wildfires:
*Copernicus Browser gives access to satellite imagery from Copernicus through your browser As part of the workshop, Alfaro displayed how to use these platforms. The session can be viewed at this link: Copernicus Conference |
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