Safety - Project ESCAPE
European Solutions by Co-operation And Planning in Emergencies (for coastal flooding)
The effect of the flooding disaster
The Coastal Flooding Disaster, which affected much of the North Sea Region in 1953, caused the death of 1835 people in Zeeland, 22 in the Flemish Provinces, and 307 in the United Kingdom. Besides these deaths, there were hundreds of thousands of people who needed to be evacuated for a longer period of time, losing their homes and businesses. The effects for the economy and spatial planning were incredible.
Can it happen again?
The decades following the Great Tide attention and effort went to the prevention of floods by delta-projects and strengthening of dikes. Risk management models, however, prove that flooding still might happen.
ESCAPE
In contrast with other projects, looking at prevention and risk management, ESCAPE approaches the effects of a flood and tries to reduce the consequences on the community, which are the people, the economy, and the spatial development when floods occur by the ESCAPE-actions. Besides this, tourism is a complicating factor within the regions participating in ESCAPE. During holiday seasons there is a huge increase of the population, which will have impact in case of emergencies, and requires a flexible and multifunctional contingency plan.
Transnational context
Setting-up this project within a transnational context gives the opportunity to share experiences and lessons learned during flooding in the past. The transnational cooperation in disaster management started by the ESCAPE-partners, might be the first step of a cooperation throughout the whole North Sea area.
Tree conferences
When the project results are positive, the project partners will stimulate this by promotion of these results during the two conferences integrated in the project. These will be attended by flooding specialists, contingency experts, involved politicians and authorities from the North Sea region as well as other European and global coastal regions. All conferences already are past, the last one September 9 in Gent, Belgium.
Themes of the project ESCAPE
Framework
Study, stocktaking and deliberation of the necessary content, requirements and conditions of contingency plans in case of flooding disasters, including the transnational aspects in case of flooding of coastal areas.
a. research and start-up;
b. develop/specify the international risk model for flooding;
c. develop the transnational framework for contingency plans;
d. implementation of the general framework in the contingency plans by one or more of the partners.There have been published three reports in English:
The main report can be considered to be the result of the international elaboration of this theme the second report is a project proposal for a High Water Disaster plan. This proposal serves as a guideline for the local and regional authorities in Zeeland. The third report is an addition to the main report and it describes 8 risk control measures which themselves are divided in 7 paragraphs ( e.g. risks control measures, planning, budget.Awareness
Development of common understandings, frameworks and models for general information of the public, the scientific world, politicians etc, awareness raising of the risks and specific information services in case of emergencies.
Information video's
Three information videos on international awareness in relation to flood disasters have been produced. A Dutch speaking video "Het Water komt "( The tide comes) and two English speaking video's. The video "Fragile Land" aims at adults (politicians, scientists, civil servants volunteer organisations and the directorate general for public works and water management. The video "Borrowed land" aims at teenagers aged 10-14. If you wish to order these videos please send an e-mail to Mr. P. J. Mersie or you can call him at +31-(0)113-631349. If you click on the title of the video, you can watch it instantly on your computer screen. (Playing time resp. 5 and 10 minutes)Highwater Information System
This theme concentrates around the High Water Information System ( HIS) , a computer model that shows by means of an animation the territories that flooded first when the dikes broke in 1953 and that will flood first when another breakthrough will take place. Thus it shows the area where the emergency measures have to be taken first in case of a disaster.
The Western-Scheldt
The HIS-system will be tested south bank. This area has the advantage that it is a transnational project: the water will not stop at the border. The model does take in account that water arrives from Belgium. (Rainwater, water from the Scheldt and from the Belgian coast).The Belgian and Dutch relief workers will cooperate tightly when a disaster occurs on the Western-Scheldt. On basis of the model's results relief organisations can coordinate things on forehand and elaborate training programmes together.You can download here an example of the two dimensional flooding model that shows the 1953 situation in Tholen, Zuid-Beveland and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. The example shown here is the situation in the middle of Zeeuws-Vlaanderen.
- Decision Support System
The Decision Support System (DSS) Emergency Planning is designed for use in the event of flooding. It makes accessible all the information related to the decision whether to evacuate an area. An important factor in this decision is the time required for the evacuation. The model used by the DSS Emergency Planning system to estimate the time required employs a strategy that prevents congestion on the road network in the area at risk. The use of the DSS Emergency Planning system during the proactive and prevention phases enables disaster containment organisations to prepare better for a flood situation. Moreover, all relevant information is saved and is therefore available for the post-disaster evaluation.
The DSS Emergency Planning system can play a significant role in ensuring that the evacuation of an area at risk goes according to plan. The DSS Emergency Planning system can also be used to evacuate people in the event of another type of disaster .
Also in this model, like in the HIS the Belgo-Dutch border area has been chosen. Not only because it has a comparable geographical and organisational cohesion, bus also because of the possible links of the HIS to the evacuation model. This link can be considered as a strong innovative element to the ESCAPE model.
Relevant websites