The European Commission's Communication "Towards a Stronger European Union Disaster Response" adopted and endorsed by the Council in 2010, underpins the importance of strengthening concerted actions for natural disasters, including floods, which are amongst the costliest natural disasters in the EU.
The European Flood Awareness System (EFAS), developed to produce European overviews on ongoing and forecasted floods up to 10 days in advance, contributes to better protection of the European citizen, the environment, property and cultural heritage. It has been developed at the European Commission’s in house science service, the Joint Research Centre, since 2002, in close collaboration with national hydrological and meteorological services, European civil protection organisations, such as the Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC) and other research institutes.
Since 2011, EFAS is part of the Copernicus emergency management service and has been transferred to operational service in 2012. It is implemented by the European Commission DG Joint Research Centre (JRC). EFAS also represents the first operational hydrological network in Europe.
The principal aims of EFAS are:
- To provide added value early flood forecasting products to hydrological services and
- To provide unique overview products of ongoing and forecasted floods in Europe more than 3 days in advance.