News

The damage and threats caused by extreme weather events have become more varied in different regions across Europe and worldwide in recent years.  In 2005 the centre of the Finnish capital Helsinki was nearly flooded because… Read More

The Extreme Weather Risk Assessment Tool developed within the RAIN project by Grupo AIA has been released under MIT license. The risk assessment tool allows a reproducible workflow that integrates weather threats and physical context… Read More

This collection contains Pan-European gridded data sets of the probability of occurrence of: river floods, coastal floods, heavy precipitation, windstorms, heavy snowfall, blizzards, crown snow load, freezing rain, forest fires, thunderstorms, hailstorms, tornadoes and convective wind… Read More

River floods are expected to become more frequent by mid-century, and rainstorms and coastal flooding by the end of the century From storms to flash floods, extreme weather events are becoming more common in Europe,… Read More

With climate change firmly on the agenda, investors are increasingly hesitant to fund infrastructure projects that aren’t future-proofed  In our connected world, any disruption to infrastructure ripples through society. But vital infrastructure such as transport… Read More

The RAIN final event on Extreme weather events and infrastructures: assessing the impacts, mitigating the consequencestook place at Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) on 24th March 2017. It has drawn more than 60 participants, including members of governmental institutions, consultancies,… Read More

The aim of the RAIN Final Event is to disseminate the significant achievements and results of the project. During the last three years, extreme weather events and their impacts upon land- based infrastructure in Europe… Read More

A workshop to demonstrate the RAIN risk-based decision making framework for critical infrastructure exposed to extreme weather events took place at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (Helsinki) on 16th February 2017. Over 30 participants attended, including… Read More

A tool combining expert judgements, discussions and also mathematical models enables decision makers to better prepare for the impact of extreme weather Flash floods or landslides, blackouts or the breakdown of public transport are just… Read More

Save the date for the RAIN Final Event 24 March 2017, Dublin, Ireland For registration and info please contact Maria Nogal: rain.project.eu.fp7@gmail.com +353 1 896 3199                 The… Read More

Researchers are analysing specific weather events from the past in an attempt to draw more general conclusions on how to anticipate those to come. The precious data obtained should also help mitigate the impact of… Read More

Dominik Paprotny from the Department of Hydraulic Engineering at Delft University of Technology presented some of his work done in RAIN project, entitled “Extreme sea levels under present and future climate: a pan-European database”, at… Read More

The frequency and severity of the latest extreme weather events in Europe has sent out a strong alarm signal, urging both local authorities and scientists to act. Part of the solution to counter the devastating… Read More

Beatriz Martinez-Pastor, Maria Nogal and Alan O’Connor from the department of Civil Engineering at Trinity College Dublin presented the paper ‘Bi-phase methodology for sensitivity analysis of complex models, applied to the model of evaluating resilience… Read More

Brian Caulfield (from TCD) and Zdenek Dvorak (from UNIZA) participated at the Civil Protection workshop held in Bratislava, Slovakia on 13 and 14 July 2016. This workshop was organised in the framework of the Slovak Presidency… Read More

Natural disasters do not stop at national borders. Early warning, better preparedness and coordinated action on a European level are necessary to cope with the impact of severe weather on infrastructure and people. In summer… Read More

On June 16th & 17th 2016, Dr. Alan O’Connor participated in an joint EU-USA transportation resilience symposium dedicated to Adaptation to Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events. The event which was held in Brussels was… Read More

Railways and public transport systems are particularly vulnerable to thunderstorms. But early warning remains a challenge, which makes it hard for operators to take adequate measures With summertime and heat waves approaching, thunderstorms are becoming… Read More

On the 9th of June 2016, Dr. Alan O’Connor, presented a keynote lecture on the RAIN project at the OCEANEXT Conference in Nantes, France. The title of his presentation was “Risk Analysis of Infrastructure Networks… Read More

Dr. Maria Nogal presented the RAIN project in the SMART RESILIENCE Conference, held in Dublin, Ireland, on 25th May 2016, and organised by Jacobs Engineering. The conference aimed at highlighting the good practice in resilience… Read More

The one and a half day workshop was organized in the frame of reference for the project is the EUSBSR Policy Area (PA) Secure, coordinated by Sweden (Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency MSB) and the CBSS… Read More

RAIN Project had a one day brainstorm meeting with the Helsinki City Rescue Department on 13th May. The meeting was hosted by Rescue Commander Simo Wecksten. The aim was to highlight and map the possibilities… Read More

RAIN participated to the 6th European Transport Research Conference, held in Warsaw, Poland from 18th – 21st April 2016 () and attended by approx 2500 professionals in the transportation industry. Professor Alan O’Connor participated on behalf of RAIN… Read More

Assessing the social and economic impact of power outages caused by extreme weather helps decision makers and grid operators in Europe take adequate measures to ensure future power supply In January 2005, a severe storm… Read More

Dominik Paprotny, from TUDelft, presented his research related to river floods at the biggest geosciences conference in Europe, the EGU General Assembly in Vienna. You can see here the abstract of his presentation. He had… Read More

The workshop on Critical infrastructure safety in context of climate change took place at Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) on 4th April 2016. It has drawn 38 participants, including members of governmental institutions, consultancies,… Read More

More data and the use of modern computing technology are crucial to helping experts to assess the effects of severe weather on infrastructure and to find ways to mitigate impacts Storms, heavy rainfall, drought or… Read More

Beatriz Martinez-Pastor, Maria Nogal, Alan O’Connor and Brian Caulfield presented their latest research in the field of Transport Resilience in the World’s Largest Gathering of Transportation Professionals, Annual Meeting TRB, where the team had the… Read More

On December 8th 2015, the RAIN consortium participated in the debate about future research ideas for ‘Safety and Security in Critical Infrastructures’ at the Knowledge4Innovation Forum at the European Parliament in Brussels. The summit was… Read More

As well as being a time for celebration, winter in Europe is a time for serious weather. Blizzards, flash floods, hurricanes, heavy snow fall can cause chaos, major disruption, economic loss, and endanger lives. Because… Read More

The workshop on Climate Change and Weather Modelling, which took place in Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) on 9th November 2015, provided a platform to discuss the most probable extreme climatological phenomena affecting European infrastructure.  The… Read More

Beatriz Martinez Pastor is a PhD student in the Department of Civil Engineering at Trinity College Dublin whose work within the RAIN project consists of developing mathematical models to assess resilience in transport networks under… Read More

The occurrence of severe weather events appears to be more frequent, more widespread and more intense during the last century. One of the results of this phenomenon is that vital systems such as transport, energy and… Read More

Some partners of the RAIN Consortium presented first results of their work onnational and regional state-of-the-artrisk monitoring and early-to- medium-range warning systems as a talk at the “European Conference on Severe Storms” (ECSS2015) in Wiener Neustadt, Austria: The… Read More

Luckily, past mistakes can sometimes be useful for present or especially future decisions. This can apply to spatial planning and management in response to natural disasters and extreme weather events. In this field the role… Read More

  In 2005, Europe was exposed to a potential risk of a nuclear disaster caused by the flooding of the Loviisa nuclear power plant in Finland. Sea levels rose by 1.73 meter above normal levels,… Read More

“The RAIN workshop on hazardous past weather events at the Freie Universitaet in Berlin on 27 February 2015 was a big success, bringing together very interested stakeholders and the RAIN researchers. Different extreme event types were actively discussed, and a panel… Read More

8th European Conference on Severe Storms – ECSS 2015 Wiener Neustadt, Austria 14-18 September 2015 Every two years, the international scientific community gets together to exchange the newest developments in severe storm research. These conferences… Read More

Understanding which extreme weather events may have caused problems in the past leads to assess the potential impact of future such events on infrastructures. In Central or Northern Europe, extreme snowfall, snow storms or freezing… Read More

Meteorologists use data of past weather events and climate modelling to improve weather warnings for operators of transport, energy and communication infrastructure. Extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall, storms, floods or forest fires can… Read More

Engineers from Trinity speak on RTÉ about their involvement in project RAIN, which seeks to develop an extreme weather risk-management framework for use across the EU. This is the time of year at which many… Read More

Nature can still shock us with its ferocity. Hence, the need to minimise the impact on the most modern transport, energy and communication networks of Nature’s extreme events. Flash floods in Central Europe in 2002… Read More

A main part of the RAIN project is the work package on “Hazard Identification”, led by Pieter Groenemeijer at ESSL – European Severe Storms Laboratory. We have interviewed Pieter on the approach to hazard identification that will be followed and how stakeholders will be involved in this process.

Researchers from the School of Engineering at Trinity College Dublin are leading a €4.77 million project to examine the impacts of extreme weather events on EU transport and energy infrastructure.

IRISH engineers are to lead a €5m research project to examine the impacts of extreme weather events on transport and energy infrastructure.

Scientists are developing methods and tools that look at multiple natural hazards and how they interact to be in a better position to deal with their consequences.

Land use planning and management now has all the scientific tools required for decision making. But scientists have yet to have an opportunity to collaborate with local authorities to implement them.

Conventional solutions to the challenges in urban storm water need to be adjusted to deal with rising populations and diminishing space in cities at all stages of development.