EMERGE: Multi-hazards and emergent risks in Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Strathclyde
Department Name: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Abstract
Weather-driven hazards, such as floods, storms, landslides and severe winter weather, account for 90% of the world's natural disasters, causing significant impacts to people, infrastructure and natural environments. Across Northern Europe, these hazards are becoming more pervasive in a changing climate. As they do, and as other 'emergent' hazards, such as wildfires and droughts, start to affect parts of Northern Europe where they have not before, transport links and supply chains, ecosystems, agricultural yields and forestry are increasingly being impacted. These impacts are intrinsically linked to resilience and coping capacities, with their severity greatest in the most vulnerable and remote regions, including people, economies and communities, the infrastructure that supports and connects them, and the goods and services they produce. Recent floods and landslides in remote regions across Northern Europe have been related to the same weather systems, however our understanding of the timing and impacts from these interconnected events is poorly understood, highlighting a critical need to better understand, and find novel solutions to, the emerging risks of weather-driven natural hazards in remote regions.
The EMERGE project, formed by a new multi-hazard focused international partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, and the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, in collaboration with British Geological Society, Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions. EMERGE has a focus of the UK, Norway and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to both the UK and its near neighbours.
EMERGE's activities will address critical research questions relating to: (1) the emergence and compounding risks of weather-driven natural hazards in remote regions; (2) the observation, prediction and monitoring of these hazards across the UK, Iceland and Norway; and (3) regional research priorities and resilience-building strategies. These will be explored through a series of expert workshops and 'living labs' in Glasgow, Oslo and Reykjavik, supported by wider dissemination activities, that will create a forum that fosters open scientific collaboration, knowledge brokering and information sharing, and identifies needs and opportunities.
Our remote communities and environments must undergo significant change if they are to successfully transition to being climate resilient. The grand challenge presented by climate change, combined with the disproportionate impacts of natural hazards in remote regions, demands a new international approach to society's interaction with the environment in order to build a more equitable and sustainable future. The new partnerships formed by EMERGE will develop world-leading research to produce critical new scientific knowledge and support the development of solutions that build climate resilience in some of our most vulnerable regions.
The EMERGE project, formed by a new multi-hazard focused international partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, and the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, in collaboration with British Geological Society, Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions. EMERGE has a focus of the UK, Norway and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to both the UK and its near neighbours.
EMERGE's activities will address critical research questions relating to: (1) the emergence and compounding risks of weather-driven natural hazards in remote regions; (2) the observation, prediction and monitoring of these hazards across the UK, Iceland and Norway; and (3) regional research priorities and resilience-building strategies. These will be explored through a series of expert workshops and 'living labs' in Glasgow, Oslo and Reykjavik, supported by wider dissemination activities, that will create a forum that fosters open scientific collaboration, knowledge brokering and information sharing, and identifies needs and opportunities.
Our remote communities and environments must undergo significant change if they are to successfully transition to being climate resilient. The grand challenge presented by climate change, combined with the disproportionate impacts of natural hazards in remote regions, demands a new international approach to society's interaction with the environment in order to build a more equitable and sustainable future. The new partnerships formed by EMERGE will develop world-leading research to produce critical new scientific knowledge and support the development of solutions that build climate resilience in some of our most vulnerable regions.
Organisations
- University of Strathclyde (Lead Research Organisation)
- British Geological Survey (Collaboration)
- Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Newcastle University (Collaboration)
- Icelandic Met Office (Collaboration)
- Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (Collaboration)
- Icelandic Meteorological Office (Project Partner)
- Norwegian Water Resources & Energy (Project Partner)
Publications
Sauter C
(2022)
Temporally compounding heatwave-heavy rainfall events in Australia
in International Journal of Climatology
Whitford A
(2023)
A gauge-based sub-daily extreme rainfall climatology for western Europe
in Weather and Climate Extremes
Sauter C
(2023)
Compound extreme hourly rainfall preconditioned by heatwaves most likely in the mid-latitudes
in Weather and Climate Extremes
Sauter C
(2023)
Compounding Heatwave-Extreme Rainfall Events Driven by Fronts, High Moisture, and Atmospheric Instability
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Description | Building Resilience to Interacting Extreme Weather-Driven Hazards and Cascading Impacts |
Amount | £19,220 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NCRR2022-004 |
Organisation | National Centre for Resilience |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2021 |
End | 02/2022 |
Description | Multi-hazard and risk informed system for Enhanced local and regional Disaster risk management (MEDiate) |
Amount | € 4,999,095 (EUR) |
Funding ID | 101074075 |
Organisation | European Commission |
Sector | Public |
Country | European Union (EU) |
Start | 10/2023 |
End | 09/2026 |
Description | EMERGE project partnership |
Organisation | British Geological Survey |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The EMERGE project is formed by a new partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, the British Geological Survey (BGS), Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The project brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions. EMERGE has a focus of the UK, Norway and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to the UK and its near neighbours. |
Collaborator Contribution | This outcome occurred as part of this award (i.e. this partnership forms the EMERGE project team). |
Impact | The EMERGE project team is collaborating to deliver the project outcomes over the next two years (2021-23), starting with a virtual workshop on the 9th February 2022 (see separate listing). |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | EMERGE project partnership |
Organisation | Icelandic Met Office |
Country | Iceland |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | The EMERGE project is formed by a new partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, the British Geological Survey (BGS), Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The project brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions. EMERGE has a focus of the UK, Norway and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to the UK and its near neighbours. |
Collaborator Contribution | This outcome occurred as part of this award (i.e. this partnership forms the EMERGE project team). |
Impact | The EMERGE project team is collaborating to deliver the project outcomes over the next two years (2021-23), starting with a virtual workshop on the 9th February 2022 (see separate listing). |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | EMERGE project partnership |
Organisation | Newcastle University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | The EMERGE project is formed by a new partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, the British Geological Survey (BGS), Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The project brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions. EMERGE has a focus of the UK, Norway and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to the UK and its near neighbours. |
Collaborator Contribution | This outcome occurred as part of this award (i.e. this partnership forms the EMERGE project team). |
Impact | The EMERGE project team is collaborating to deliver the project outcomes over the next two years (2021-23), starting with a virtual workshop on the 9th February 2022 (see separate listing). |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | EMERGE project partnership |
Organisation | Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate |
Country | Norway |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | The EMERGE project is formed by a new partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, the British Geological Survey (BGS), Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The project brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions. EMERGE has a focus of the UK, Norway and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to the UK and its near neighbours. |
Collaborator Contribution | This outcome occurred as part of this award (i.e. this partnership forms the EMERGE project team). |
Impact | The EMERGE project team is collaborating to deliver the project outcomes over the next two years (2021-23), starting with a virtual workshop on the 9th February 2022 (see separate listing). |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | EMERGE project partnership |
Organisation | Scottish Environment Protection Agency |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | The EMERGE project is formed by a new partnership between the University of Strathclyde, the Icelandic Meteorological Office, the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate, the British Geological Survey (BGS), Newcastle University, and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The project brings together experts to explore weather-driven hazards - primarily extreme rainfall, landslides and floods - and their emergent and compounding risks across Northern Europe's remote and vulnerable regions. EMERGE has a focus of the UK, Norway and Iceland, aimed at bringing together researchers that work in similar climatic zones to foster collaboration and create novel, cutting-edge science that is beneficial to the UK and its near neighbours. |
Collaborator Contribution | This outcome occurred as part of this award (i.e. this partnership forms the EMERGE project team). |
Impact | The EMERGE project team is collaborating to deliver the project outcomes over the next two years (2021-23), starting with a virtual workshop on the 9th February 2022 (see separate listing). |
Start Year | 2021 |
Description | EMERGE project workshop series |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The EMERGE project is hosting a series of workshop to bring together researchers and operational stakeholders to understand the critical research questions relating to multi-hazards in Northern Europe's remote regions. The workshops - through presentations and breakout discussions - are a series of workshops being hosted in the EMERGE project's collaborative countries (Norway, Scotland and Iceland), focusing on open scientific collaboration, knowledge brokering, information sharing, and the identification of needs and opportunities. The first workshop on 09 February 2022, held virtually due to COVID-19 (approx. 50 participants), focused on the emergence and compounding risks of weather-driven natural hazards in remote regions and the key science, observation, prediction and monitoring gaps. The workshop helped guide EMERGE's further activities. The second workshop, held in person at NVE in Oslo in Norway on 05-06 May 2022 (approx. 30 attendees), explored (1) the unique challenges posed by the emergence and compounding risks of weather-driven natural hazards in Norway; and (2) the key science, observation, prediction and monitoring gaps. The workshop included a 'living lab' visit to sites around Oslo, as well as other dissemination activities. The focus of the third EMERGE Glasgow workshop, held in person on 08 March 2023 at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (approx. 25 attendees), was (1) an overview of the collated learning from the EMERGE project so far establishing how remote community resilience varies between the project countries; (2) identifying what policy and science developments are in place surrounding the emergence and compounding risks of weather-driven natural hazards in remote regions; and (3) understanding how warnings and responses vary based on the underlying themes and available data. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
Description | Presentations at international conferences |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Two EMERGE project presentations by Dr Chris White (PI) at UK (national) and international conferences: 1) NEEDS (Northern European Emergency and Disaster Studies Conference) 2022: Global Disasters, University of Copenhagen, 1-3 November 2022. URL: https://jura.ku.dk/cilg/calendar/2022/needs-2022/. Talk title: Multi-hazards and emergent risks in northern Europe's remote regions 2) UK Alliance for Disaster Research Annual Conference 2022, Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (ECCI), University of Edinburgh, 7-8 December 2022. URL: http://www.ukadr.org/conference2022.html. Talk title: Multi-hazards and emergent risks in northern Europe's remote regions |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |