Living with Risk. A global review of disaster reduction initiatives

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/
civil/prote/cpactiv/cpact05c.htm
Flood and Erosion Management in Alpine
River Basins.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/
civil/prote/cpactiv/cpact05e.htm
Development of rescue actions based on dambreak
flood analysis (RESCDAM).
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/
civil/prote/cpactiv/cpact05h.htm
Analysis of the 1993/1995 Floods in Western
Europe.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/
civil/prote/cpactiv/cpact05a.htm
The European Environment Agency’s (EEA)
core task is to provide decision-makers with
the information needed for creating sound
policies to protect the environment and support
sustainable development. It carries out
studies on issues such as the impact of extreme
hydrological disasters in relation to Europe’s
water resources. It also supports the EC in diffusing
information on the results of environmental-linked
research. http://org.eea.eu.int
The EUR-OPA Major Hazards Agreement
constitutes an open agreement on setting up
cooperation in major natural and technological
disasters. It has been signed by 23 Member
States of the Council of Europe. Its aim is to
carry out a multidisciplinary study of the cooperation
methods through political, scientific
and technical activities.
http://www.europarisks.coe.int
Central Europe
The Central European Disaster Prevention
Forum (CEUDIP) was established in 1999
through the joint efforts of the National Committees
for the IDNDR from the Czech
Policy and public commitment: the foundation of disaster risk reduction
Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and
Slovakia, to continue activities of the ISDR.
The specific motivation was to formulate an
institutional mechanism that could increase
the collaboration in disaster reduction related
to all types of hazards, and particularly
floods, shared among these neighbouring
countries.
Following the shared experience of the destructive
Oder River floods early in 1999, the initial
interest that stimulated the participating countries
was a common desire to improve early
warning capabilities both among and within the
individual countries. Other issues have emerged
subsequently, such as the role of the media in
disaster reduction, national legislation about
declared emergencies, the participation of civil
society in disaster reduction activities, and the
preparation of training materials.
The forum has conducted annual meetings
since 1999 in Prague, Warsaw, Bratislava and
Bonn. The members of CEUDIP agreed at
their meeting in 2000 that closer cooperation
would be required with EU policies related to
civil protection and disaster reduction. As four
of the CEUDIP countries are candidates for
future membership in the EU, they have
assigned particular relevance to assess their
present capabilities.
In particular, they have recognized the growing
importance of strong and active participation of
the public, working through civic groups and
other NGOs to supplement the efforts of government
institutions and agencies. This
approach to foster common and improved
regional standards was augmented at
CEUDIP’s meeting in Bratislava in 2001 when
it was agreed to develop a project of cooperation
with the EU institutions involved with emergencies,
risk and disaster reduction issues.
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