In the last decades, the flooding events linked to climate change have been increasing and the costs, bearded by the community both in terms of human life, damage to environment, social-cultural and economic assets, have consequently raised. It required the communities to be more and more active part in building adaptation strategies as well as in the implementation of effective early warning systems.

In one word, local communities are now called to actively build their resilience. Starting from these assumptions, the LIFE PRIMES project aims to build resilient communities through their full engagement and proactive participation in the operations of Early Warning and flood risk prevention.

The LIFE PRIMES project is conceived to respond to the European challenge in the area of adaptation management and in particular of the Early Warning Integrated Systems, through the achievement of the following specific objectives:

• To homogenize procedures of risk management and flooding prevention at trans-regional level, moving towards strengthening coordination between different levels of civil protection both on a vertical scale (Region – City – Community) and horizontal scale (Region-Region / City-City / Community- Community).
• To build a web friendly tool kit where all knowledge and necessary information are collected and organized in order activate voluntary and daily actions for the prevention of risks due to climate change;
  
• To move communities from a passive approach to the risk management, relevant to emergency response, to a pro-active one, supporting the phase of risk prevention through the active participation in implementing soft adaptation measures and actions
• To allow the knowledge diffusion and innovative collaboration among Civil Protection and the civil society, raising awareness on adaptation to climate change and on the impact of risk alert patterns;
• All these objectives will be achieved through a series of activities (as described in section C.0) and they will contribute to the realization of the long term objectives, such as:
• To integrate the adaptation in the daily life stile and habits of local communities, stimulating them in implementing soft adaptation actions and risk preventing measures
  * to improve the awareness-raising by identifying responsibilities, roles and collaborations among organizations and citizens both at national and local levels.

A.1-BASE LINE SCENARIO AND CAPACITY BUILDING:collect and analize all datas on existing models and climate forecasting scenarios and on international experiences in local adaptation plans.A state of the art report will be developed and the baseline scenario on local climate changes for the regions involved will be modelled.These activities will be shared through capacity building measures

C.1-HOMOGENISATION AND INTEGRATION OF EARLY WARNING SYSTEMS:promote the homogenization of EW Systems in the 3 Partner Regions (Abruzzo,Marche,Emilia Romagna)to structure and share managing procedures and a common language for warnings related to hydraulic risks.The activities will be directed towards the homogenization of the 3 major areas of in-depth analysis, which relate to the 3 pillars which make up an Early Warning system:(1)Data acquiring and risk analysis;(2)Management and Governance;(3)Communication procedures

C.2-IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PRIMES TOOL-WORK AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE WEB-PORTAL.

First phase[C.2.1]aims to build a TOOL WORK WEB (WEB SPACE) that facilitates the management of alert in the 3 regions.Second phase[C.2.2]includes communication and involvement of the population, through the WEB SPACE.WEB SPACE will then be the digital platform for all institutions involved in the management of risk and will allow a quick and immediate access to data and information on static and dynamic risk (meteo-hydrological-hydraulic)

C.3-BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES THROUGH LOCAL CIVIL ADAPTACTION PLANS:make local communities able to face risks of climate change events.Project will involve local communities focusing on action plan elaborated by WEB and by workshops for building resilient communities

D.1–EVALUATION OF PROJECT RESULTS: evaluate the impacts of the project through:[D.1.1]risk perception analysis,to assess the empowerment of people in terms of risk awareness and knowledge,and [D.1.2) community resilience analysis, to measure disaster resilience threshold of local communities

E.1-COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS: aims at disseminate and communicate to: local authorities,economic sectors,national and European institutions the results of the project.Activities are planned to start during the project life to develop also an in itinere dissemination.
F.1Project management: provide a successful coordination and management of each action in order to accomplish the project’s objectives within the budget constraints.

TECHNICAL LEVEL

-A common baseline scenario obtained by simulations of the same meteorological,climatological and marine parameters and climate indices

-Homogenizing procedures and risk management systems in case of extreme events(3 agreed protocols[C.1]),strengthening coordination between different levels of civil protection(3 alert simulations/pilot demostrations[C.3.3])

-Faster warning alert management through simplified data flows(reduced number of steps in the transfer of alert information),full usability of relevant information by the web-portal [C.2]

COMMUNITY LEVEL

-A potential reduction of about 10/15% of the damage suffered by population of areas identified on movable property and to a lesser extent on real estate (homes,factories,apartments,plots of ground,etc.)

-A decrease in number of households/people impacted by flood and a consistent reduction of related deaths

-An increase in financial resources allocated in municipalities and regions budgets for the safety of areas affected by the PRIMES project through a stronger commitment by the mayors of the municipalities involved

ENVIRONMENTAL LEVEL

-A 5-10% reduction in the cost for recovery,storage and disposal of waste and materials carried by the floods

-A significant reduction(possibly100%)of the hydraulic hazard of flooding of natural watercourses where there are hydraulic structures/infrastucturespresent which can be operated and which allow for proper millwork of flooding implemented by the recent floods directive 2007/60/EC and in reclamation and artificial channels(mainly used in the agricultural sector)

-Reduced risk of flooding in the river network of pilot areas,due to an increase in maintenance of the minor drainage network

-Environmental benefits in preserving biodiversity and ecosystems,due to a better maintenance of the territory

EUROPEAN LEVEL

– Manual of procedures for the homogenization and implementation of Prevention&Warning Systems

-More than 600 Local Civic AAPs, developed by citizens after 3 years