Geo-information services for risk management on a European level

Communication : News, Gallery, Documents

MED2007

PREVIEW involvement in the MED2007 Exercise in
Aix-en-Provence (France)

27-28-29 March 2007

MED2007 Exercise

The purpose of the MED2007 “table top” Exercise was to activate National Operational Centres of all 10 Mediterranean States, 27 Member States of the European Union and the MIC (Monitoring & Information Centre) in order to test their reactivity and the efficiency of the Euro-Mediterranean Civil Protection coordination, in particular the coordination of the actions of the relief teams of the international assistance on the Mediterranean basin.

PREVIEW Tsunami Simulation Model

PREVIEW has contributed to the Euro-Mediterranean Exercise MED2007 by modelling
two simulations of earthquake followed by a tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea.
Tsunami waves generated by the first earthquake (offshore Alexandria, Egypt)
of magnitude 8.5 and the second (offshore Nice, France) of magnitude 7.5
on Richter’s scale are respectively 8 meters and 5 meters high reaching the coasts.

Localisation of prone areas to a Tsunami wave

During the MED2007 Exercise, a large number and different kinds of Asset Mapping have been used to identify prone areas to the tsunami risk. All these Asset Mapping products are developed in the frame of the PREVIEW European project.

This scheme indicates:

potential impact of the tsunami on the low altitude areas and sea side areas.
the areas between 0 and 5 meters height, 5 and 8 meters height and 8 and 10 meters height.
the flood extent of a tsunami wave on the coastal areas has been estimated by Digital Elevating Models (DEM).

Overview of the Euro-Med project The European Union is financing a Euro-Med Bridge Programme in the field of civil protection within the framework of the MEDA programme.
The main objective is to contribute to political and security confidence-building in the Euro-Mediterranean area as well as further promote and support the establishment of a Euro-Mediterranean system of Civil Protection. All 27 Member States of the European Union and 10 Mediterranean States - Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Tunisia and Turkey - are
involved in the Euro-Med Programme.

Damage Assessment

Considering the nature of the exercise with the goal to involve largely European and Mediterranean Civil Protections, the human assessment was fixed by convetions. Material damages on coastal Mediterranean countries were also very significant on infrastructures.

PREVIEW Asset Mapping

Asset Mapping products provide updated information on assets, improving the knowledge of prone risk areas and the impact of natural and technological hazards like the tsunami wave in the MED2007 Exercise.
This Asset Mapping highlights the density of human settlements, key-infrastructures and the flooded areas by the Tsunami. During the crisis phase, it updates field information in order to better manage rescue resources with respect to threatened “assets”. During the post-crisis phase, this product also provides support for damage assessment and better estimation of socio-economic losses.

PREVIEW Atmospheric Dispersion Model

After an industrial accident triggered by an earthquake, the PREVIEW Atmospheric Dispersion Model provides forcasted images of the chemical cloud.
During the MED2007 Exercise, Civil Protection representatives of the Euro-Med community have the opportunity to use and evaluate PREVIEW products through their own decision support systems.