European Flood Awareness System – A technical assessment of the EFAS performance during Storm Boris in September 2024
In mid-September 2024, several Central European countries were hit by widespread flooding, causing considerable damages. The European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) of the Copernicus Emergency Management Service aims to inform users of possible upcoming floods. This report assesses the performance of EFAS service at concerned basins - the Danube, Elbe, Oder and Vistula. It provides a detailed analysis of EFAS products and services in terms of forecast accuracy, timeliness, quality, and effectiveness of communication during the event. The aim is to identify weaknesses in the service and to prioritise follow-up actions. Together 56 Formal, 46 Informal and 61 Flash Flood Notifications were issued for affected countries. Furthermore, 3 pre-tasking requests for satellite imagery were sent in advance due to EFAS forecasts and 4 rapid mapping activations were performed. According to a more detailed analysis, the EFAS service demonstrated an overall good performance. However, several improvements are suggested. Timing of the flood peaks in the middle and lower sections of rivers can be improved by enhancement of river flow routing method. Reassessment of post-processed forecasts´ methodology is suggested to enable the use of post-processed hydrographs in case of extreme flows, which were not available during the event. Several qualitative improvements of EFAS-IS, concerning assignment of reporting points to particular rivers, and improvement of the form for the feedback on notifications are advised as well.
RANDUSOVÁ Beata;
HLAVÁČIKOVÁ Hana;
MIKULIČKOVÁ Michaela;
HALAJ Martin;
ČIZMAZIOVÁ Lucia;
LEMKE Carina-Denise;
ZIESE Markus;
GARCIA PADILLA Mercedes;
ARROYO María Márquez;
CORZO TOSCANO Mariano;
D'ANGELO Claudia;
SALAMON Peter;
2025-11-13
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC143951
978-92-68-32694-7 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 40498,
OP KJ-01-25-528-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC143951,
10.2760/8814030 (online),
Additional supporting files
| File name | Description | File type | |
|---|
