ENV.2013.6.4-3

Coasts at threat in Europe: tsunamis and climate-related risks

FP7-ENV-2013-two-stage

Recent climate-related and tsunami catastrophic events have highlighted the increased exposure and vulnerability of societies in coastal areas. Research should strongly enhance today's forecasting, prediction and early warning capabilities in order to improve the assessment of coastal vulnerability and risks and develop adequate prevention, mitigation and preparedness measures. The knowledge gathered and lessons learned from recent dramatic events (e.g. Great East Japan Tsunami, Xynthia storm in France, Liguria flash floods), as well as from past and on-going EU research, should be used in order to design and develop management approaches to minimise social and economic losses and environmental impacts and increase resilience to such events.
Proposals should either address tsunamis or extreme hydro-meteorological events (e.g. extreme winds, storm surges, coastal and estuarine floods — taking in consideration the effects of climate change) and should focus on the respective key research challenges.
Research should focus on Europe, but international cooperation with any third countries experiencing the same type of threats and willing to share know-how is encouraged. Innovative, cost-effective, technological or non-technological solutions as well as ecosystem-based approaches should be explored. Organisational and institutional/governance aspects have to be considered as well.

Funding scheme: Collaborative Project
The requested EU contribution per project shall not exceed EUR 6 000 000.
One or more proposals can be selected.

Expected impact: Faster attainment of the disaster risk reduction goals of UNISDR (United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction). Design of cost-effective risk-reduction plans, based on the proposed tools and solutions. Improved risk governance and preparedness through the provision of timely information and warnings to decision-makers.

Specific feature: Projects should consider attributing a specific budget to clustering activities with projects on related issues selected in this call and, where relevant, with those projects resulting  from  the  collaborative  research  action  on  'coastal  vulnerability'  announced  in  the first call of the International Opportunities Fund by the Belmont Forum ( www.belmontforum.org/iof )