Early warning for flash floods

International Workshop organized by the Czech Hydrometeorogical Institute and the Czech National Committee for Disaster Reduction, November 1 to 2, 2020, Prague.

This document reports on a workshop which brought together experienced people directly involved in facing Flash Floods (FFs) like forecasters from National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHSs), Civil Defense or Fire and Rescue Services, other parts of crisis management systems, local administration and the public, to find possibilities of improvement of efficiency and diminishing an impact of such fast and dangerous events.

It provides a comparison of existing systems for early warning and protection against FFs in the European Network of National Platforms (ENNP) countries (France, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic) and the United States. It is intended to stimulate discussion in order to find significant improvement of early warning, dissemination and preparedness for these extremely quick floods. It advocates for the role of national platforms for disaster risk reduction to be directed towards modern and complex protection against FFs leading to minimization of losses of lives and property in their respective countries.