On February 27th, Provincie Zeeland organized a stakeholder gathering for the FIER project in Zeeland. Various stakeholders where invited with expertise in crisis management, climate adaptation, and infrastructure to share insights and discuss our projects.
Strengthening Flood Resilience: Collaborative Efforts in the North Sea Region
The Province of Zeeland and the Veiligheidsregio Zeeland presented their ongoing projects, including:
- Infrastructure design requirements for evacuation and emergency services
- A serious game to test infrastructure measures and conduct exercises
- Data matching of flood scenarios between Zeeland and Flanders
- Recovery plans for non-flooded or minimally flooded areas
- A decision support tool for flood threat response
- Evacuation analysis tools
- E-learning platforms for crisis professionals
We discussed how we can better prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate-induced flooding in the North Sea region. In small groups, stakeholders worked together to explore questions such as: What are the experiences with crisis management and evacuations? Where are safe locations and shelters? And how is collaboration already taking place? These discussions led to valuable knowledge-sharing and generated ideas for improving collaboration and flood resilience in the region.
Advancing Cross-Border Collaboration and Innovation in Flood Risk Management
The valuable insights from our stakeholders will also help shape our next steps as we continue this cross-border collaboration with partners from Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
Additionally, the Digital Twin demonstrated during the kick-off attracted a lot of interest from the attendees. This technology simulates floods and assesses their impact on infrastructure, supporting better risk management and decision-making. By integrating real-time data and modeling different scenarios, it enables stakeholders to prepare more effectively.
Overall, there was a great turnout, with strong enthusiasm for tackling the multi-level safety challenge together. Various networks came together, some for the first time, creating new connections and collaborations.