Abstract
Three major projects initiated by the European Commission within its 7th Framework Programme that have studied the weather phenomena and their projections to the future in relation to their impacts and implications to the European transport systems have recently been concluded. All of the transport modes were covered, as well as all of the critical phenomena present within the European area. The three projects (that ran from 2009 and 2012) are as follows: (1) EWENT (Extreme Weather impacts on European Networks of Transport—www.ewent.vtt.fi); (2) ECCONET (Effects of climate change on the inland waterway networks—www.ecconet.eu); (3) WEATHER (Weather Extremes: Assessment of Impacts on Transport and Hazards for European Regions—www.weather-project.eu). In this Foreward to the Special Issue on “Vulnerability of Transportation to Extreme Weather and Climate Change,” the key results of the above three projects are addressed concisely, offering the reader a broader view of their findings; since some of these are enveloped in the research papers hosted in this volume, they will not be covered in detail. However, the rich output of these projects in the form of “Project Deliverables” and “Reports” is also an important source of information on the findings and results from these three projects which are publicly available on the projects’ Web sites. The purpose of this Foreward is to bring to the attention of the interested reader these sources and overview briefly some of the projects’ outcomes. Also, a short comparative discussion on selected findings is made, outlining agreements and disagreements between the projects.
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Notes
The results for Rotterdam–Duisburg are presented by Bruinsma et al. (2012) and are in line with the Rotterdam–Basel calculations.
The Classification of European Inland Waterways (CEMT) comprises a set of standards for interoperability of large navigable waterways forming part of the Trans-European Inland Waterway network. While officially a measure to classify waterways, it is generally used as a reference to ship size, as there is a direct link with the maximum allowable tonnage of a ship. CEMT classes III and IV can be considered as relatively small boats. CEMT class V are large Rhine vessels. Class VI are generally barges and push boats.
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Acknowledgments
On behalf of all the partners involved in the three EU-funded projects EWENT, WEATHER, and ECCONET, the authors would like to express their gratitude to the European Commission for providing the opportunity to European researchers to be in the forefront of this type of research, through its 7th Framework Program. Particular thanks are due to the Scientific Officers Mr. Karsten Krause and Ms. Ioanna-Olga Adamescu (EWENT and WEATHER projects), Ms. Astrid Schlewing, Ms. Sophie Cabanis, and Mr. Marc Vanderhaegen (ECCONET project) for their support and trust, during the course of the work. The volume of the research work on vulnerability of transportation to weather and climate compiled through the three projects has not been seen to this extent before; in this respect, the authors would like to acknowledge the significant scientific contributions of the partners, researchers, and workshop participants engaged in these important projects, for the dedication in carrying out their tasks and the enthusiasm with which they contributed to the common effort. We are very proud of having been able to work with these prominent researchers, great persons, and outstanding personalities. We would also like to thank the members of the advisory boards and other individuals for their contributions: Philippe Crist (International Transport Forum of the OECD); Martti Mäkelä (Finnish Ministry of Transport and Communications); Nancy Saich (European Investment Bank); Rachel Burbidge (EUROCONTROL); Alexandre Kaddouri (SNCF); Marie Venner (Vennerconsulting, USA); Prem Chhetri (RMIT, Australia); Martin van Dijk (Schuttevaer International); Bas Turpijn (Rijkswaterstaat); Hans van der Werf (CCNR); Karin De Schepper (Inland Navigation Europe). The ECCONET consortium members would also like to thank and remember their deceased colleagues Bane Zigic from DST and Piet Rietveld from VU Amsterdam. Their contributions and ideas were invaluable to the project. The EWENT consortium members would like to dedicate the articles from the EWENT project to their distinguished colleague Nikolai Dotzek, who worked for the Severe Storms Laboratory and deceased during the course of the EWENT project. Last but not least, we express our gratitude to Prof. Tad Murty, Editor of Natural Hazards, for giving us the opportunity to present in this Foreward a brief compilation of the work performed in the three projects.
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Michaelides, S., Leviäkangas, P., Doll, C. et al. Foreward: EU-funded projects on extreme and high-impact weather challenging European transport systems. Nat Hazards 72, 5–22 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-1007-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-1007-1