For Europe, floods are considered to be one of the most important natural hazards. They challenge both local communities and member state response capacities. Due to human activities and the climate change, we are likely to see growing flood risk in the coming decades.
Danube region is particularly exposed to flood events, often of impressive scale and frequency. Therefore, the development of flood response organizations in the region is crucial for resilience in the area.
Regional policies are focused on floods as well. EU Strategy for the Danube Region Environmental Risks Priority Area 5 (PA5) – coordinated by Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Romanian Ministry of Water, Forest and Environment – focuses on the management of the different risks which are mostly affecting the 9 EU and 5 non-EU member states of the Danube Region.
PA5’s aim is to strengthen disaster prevention and preparedness among governmental and non-governmental organizations:
- Support joint preparedness activities of professional and volunteer disaster response actors (e.g. regional exercises, joint training activities, sharing know-how, standardization of capacities)s
- Harmonized training and capacity building of civil protection units (based on European Union Civil Protection Mechanism) to improve coordination, interoperability, procedures and self-sufficiency
- Support disaster risk reduction at regional and local level, raising public awareness;
- Innovation and technology to support disaster response (VR, drone, IT solutions, mapping).