Participants from the EFAS centres participating in the EFAS workshop at the Italian Civil protection in Rome.
Participants from the EFAS centres participating in the EFAS workshop at the Italian Civil protection in Rome.

This workshop was arranged by the request of the administrative contact for the new EFAS partner the Italian Civil Protection Agency.

The objective of the mission was to:

  • Give them an introduction to EFAS and train them in how to use the EFAS-IS
  • Show them how to provide feedback for received notifications
  • Instruct them how to provide hydrological and meteorological station data

The training took place in Rome, Italy at the Civil Protection Agency on 19 -20 September 2019. It was held by Eva Kopáčiková and Bettina Matti from the EFAS Dissemination Centre, Mercedes García Padilla and Rafael J. García Sánchez from the Hydrological Data Collection Centre, Armin Rauthe-Schöch from the Meteorological Data Collection Centre and Cinzia Mazzetti from the Computational Centre. Participants were officers from national and regional civil protection agencies, people working with hydrological data and hydrological models and researchers from CIMA (Centro Internazionale di Ricerca in Monitoraggio Ambientale). Some of them had previous experience using EFAS, for some people it was their first meeting with the system.

The training started with an overview of activities and workflow at the Italian Civil protection for the EFAS representatives. After that, a joint introduction of the EFAS (EFAS general information, information about LISFLOOD model, probabilistic forecasting, meteorological inputs, EFAS thresholds, EFAS notifications, and flash floods) was held before a discussion section took place taking up the topics of EFAS performance compared to the performance of national systems and the process of becoming an EFAS partner.

Then, the EFAS Hydrological Data Collection Centre and the EFAS Meteorological Data Collection Centre presented their operations and workflows talking about data transfer, data harmonization, data quality control and validation, collaborations in EFAS products such as reports and bulletins, incident management and partner communications. Further presentations led by the EFAS DISS were about the feedback process for EFAS notifications, new EFAS products (rapid impact assessment and rapid flood mapping, seasonal outlooks and 6-hourly calibration) and an Italian case study.

Discussion sections took place also on the second day where specific questions and concerns were discussed as well as a hands-on session on how to use the EFAS-IS was conducted. Participants were encouraged to follow along using their own computers. The participants were satisfied with the workshop and expressed their gratitude for the training.