Project Summary

Enhancing the resilience of Adriatic Ionian territories against natural disasters is a significant challenge for an area prone to different kinds of natural hazards. The challenge is even greater when one counts on the consequences of climate change that induce increasing severity and frequency of specific types of hazards. And it becomes even more complex for an area like Adriatic Ionian that is multinational, and is characterized by heterogeneity, different governance structures, and diverse socio-economic conditions. GRECALE stands up to this complex challenge having as its overall objective to enhance territorial resilience and disaster recovery in the Adriatic Ionian basin. The project targets two specific usecases of natural disasters: floods and earthquakes, as they affect the entire area and can have multinational and cross border effects. The project aspires to make a significant contribution towards a more resilient area, exploiting transnational cooperation in Civil Protection, leading to more harmonized and efficient frameworks and systems, overcoming Civil Protection process heterogeneity, and addressing the entire lifecycle of Civil Protection focusing specifically on the response and recovery phases, during and after an incident. To this end, it will produce an IPA ADRION Civil Protection Innovation Platform (ACPIP) networking the entire Civil Protection Quadruple Helix in the partner territories and beyond, including public administration, Civil Protection stakeholders, academia and research, enterprises, and the private sector with an involvement in Civil Protection, the civil society, and general public. Studying the existing frameworks and systems is of paramount importance to create a unifying Civil Protection Model, for the entire lifecycle of Civil Protection and especially response and recovery phases, detailing the actors involved, the actions undertaken, the data and information exchanges, and the communications among them. As a next step, an ADRION Civil Protection Disaster Management System ACPDMS portal will be developed, utilizing mature and advanced information and communication technologies that can help in the context of risk assessment and disaster management. In fact, the project capitalizes on the output of the successful ADRION TransCPEarlyWarning project and its Early Warning platform following its relevant assessment recommendations to extend so as to cover the entire lifecycle of Civil Protection operations and different types of hazards. The ACPDMS will first and foremost offer a one stop shop operation for Civil Protection stakeholders with reference to their process monitoring and management, while it will allow experimentation with advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and analysis of Copernicus datasets. A multinational pilot action is envisaged in seven partner territories engaging this innovative approach and enhancing multinational cooperation in the context of collaborative training and capacity building. Finally, the project recognizes the fact that managing territorial resilience in a multinational area requires addressing political, legal, and logistical complexities. Overcoming these challenges requires building trust and establishing effective governance mechanisms. To this end and in order to have a permanent effect through uptaken outputs after the end of the project, GRECALE will draft a strategic outline comprising a set of specific policy recommendations for increasing territorial resilience, accompanied by a specific action plan detailing actions and funding instruments that can facilitate the strategy adoption. The project follows a holistic approach along different axes: multinational and interdisciplinary networking of stakeholders, exploitation of the offerings of advanced technologies and innovation, multinational pilot actions and experimentation, multinational collaborative capacity building and upskilling, elaboration of policy recommendations and specific action plan for facilitating uptake and transferability, and wider communication and awareness building. This holistic approach has a strong transnational dimension as natural hazards do not recognize borders and they need a unifying approach in their management across national frameworks and systems. This holistic approach also contributes to the originality of the GRECALE project. Along with the exploitation of the best offerings of ICT and innovative ACPDMS to be developed, the project will engage the entire Civil Protection Quadruple Helix in Civil Protection exercises to offer transnational upskilling. By pooling resources, expertise, and experiences, GRECALE can enhance IPA ADRION collective capacity to withstand natural hazards. GRECALE recognizes that the journey toward territorial resilience requires perseverance, adaptability, and it will produce a strategy offering IPA ADRION territories a long-term vision for a safer and more resilient future.