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High-Resolution Early Precipitation-to-Flood Signals

High-Resolution Early Precipitation-to-Flood Signals

High-Resolution Early Precipitation-to-Flood Signals is an initiative developed within the framework of the European programme Destination Earth (DestinE). It is part of the Pilot Services for DestinE Impact Sectors, specifically supporting resilience and mitigation services related to extreme weather events.

The main objective of the project is to leverage the Operational Products of the Extremes Digital Twin (Extremes DT) to support decision-making processes in the management of hydro-meteorological risk, with a particular focus on floods.

By combining advanced meteorological and hydrological models, early warning indicators, and high-resolution simulations, the project aims to provide decision-making support at various territorial scales—from regions to communities—to effectively manage climate-related risks.

The Pilot Service will be developed through a three-tier operational hierarchy:

  • Aggregated precipitation indicators to provide large-scale early warnings;
  • Application of the FloodPROOFS hydrological model to identify river behaviour and flood-prone areas in Italy;
  • On-demand activation of ultra-high-resolution (up to 500 m) weather simulations using the ICON model, coupled with FloodPROOFS, for selected critical areas.

Since the impacts and magnitude of events are highly dependent on the territorial and socio-economic context in which they occur, this structure allows the service to be adapted to different settings and levels of complexity, taking into account local needs and the state of the art in weather alert systems.

The project is coordinated by Agenzia ItaliaMeteo and involves three key partners:

  • DWD (Deutscher Wetterdienst), the German Meteorological Service;
  • Fondazione CIMA, Italy’s national reference for hydrological simulation and Civil Protection support;
  • CINECA, the Italian HPC center for high-performance computing and technological implementation.

ItaliaMeteo is responsible for project management and overall coordination, stakeholder engagement, and communication activities. It will also directly contribute to high-resolution weather simulations and maintain the relationship with ECMWF, the implementing entity of DestinE.