On September 10th, 2024, the first stakeholder workshop of the “Real World Lab – Danube” took place at the hydraulic engineering laboratory of BOKU University in Vienna. The workshop brought together experts from various disciplines, including research, insurance, disaster control, civil protection, and public administration. The goals of the workshop were to explore innovative flood risk assessment models developed by DIRECTED project partners, as well as Austria’s risk mapping tool HORA. Additionally, it aimed to foster exchanges and networking between and within various stakeholder groups and to test disaster management and risk governance practices in Vienna and beyond, in the face of climate change.
The workshop began with an introduction round and an overview of the progress made in the DIRECTED project. The discussions then shifted to the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, viewed from both scientific and insurance industry perspectives. A central theme was the importance of risk modeling as a tool for the early detection of such events. This led to presentations of several models and applications, some of which had been developed by project partners partly before the DIRECTED project, including: SAFERPLACES, the DANUBE MODEL, CLIMADA, and RIM2D. These tools, which are currently being integrated into the project’s “Data Fabric” are based on identified needs and gaps and aim to provide end-users with comprehensive flood protection solutions—from early warning systems to long-term risk assessments across the entire Danube region.
A particular highlight of the workshop was the simulation of a 100-year pluvial flood, based on a real event from mid-August 2024 in Vienna. Participants, including disaster control stakeholders, evaluated their roles and discussed potential weaknesses in Vienna’s disaster management, such as information gaps and communication challenges.
The workshop concluded with breakout sessions aimed at capturing the perspectives of the various stakeholder groups regarding challenges in disaster risk management and climate change adaptation, particularly in relation to data, models, communication, and governance. Participants, divided into three groups, discussed possible bottlenecks in data use and availability, legal gaps, and communication problems, as well as the idea of establishing an institutionalized communication platform to enhance collaboration between experts and practitioners in disaster risk management and governance.
In the DIRECTED project consortium, we are now evaluating for which of the gathered ideas and gaps we can tailor a solution.
Many thanks again to all participants for their active engagement. We look forward to continued collaboration.
For more information, please refer to our Projects page.