Review of the current risk management strategies in Europe for hydro-meteorological hazards at protection and emergency level

A review of the current emergency response strategies at European level was carried out from the key conclusions and recommendations identified within past experiences of developed platform for civil protection and emergency management. The review is focused on the recent research initiatives funded by the European Community about methods and techniques for emergency response in case of flooding and debris flow risks, mainly. The ultimate aim is to reduce the fragmentation of the research on hydro-meteorological hazards so to possibly identify a best practice on disaster risk management. This paper is organized as follows, first a brief overview on emergency response strategies is presented along with an analysis of the challenges that arisen while implementing the following tools: geo-information and remote sensing, emergency plans, early warning and decision support systems. Then, conclusions have been drawn.