The Floods component under the Early Warning and Monitoring service composes as shown in the Figure below out of (a) two forecast systems (EFAS & GloFAS) as well as (b) a satellite-based flood monitoring service:
CEMS flood forecast and early warning component
The European Flood Awareness Systems (EFAS) is the first operational pan-European flood forecasting and monitoring system. EFAS provides a wide range of early flood forecasting information to support national and regional authorities with flood risk management duties in arranging preparatory measures before an event strikes. In addition, EFAS provides a unique overview across Europe and neighbouring countries on currently observed and forecasted flood events. It is an asset to the flood risk management of large trans-national river basins as well as the European Civil Protection Mechanism. In addition to forecasting where and when large riverine and flash floods will likely occur, the service also estimates and maps the potential socio-economic impact of those events.
The first time user is advised to get familiar with the services and products by browsing through the EFAS User Guide. A full documentation on the technical background of EFAS can be found in the EFAS wiki.
The Global Flood Awareness Systems (GloFAS) in contrast to EFAS, is the operational global flood forecasting and monitoring system, being operational since 2018. GloFAS provides a similar product portfolio as EFAS containing a wide range of early flood forecasting information to support stakeholders with flood risk management duties in arranging preparatory measures before an event strikes. The main difference to EFAS it the coarser spatial and temporal resolution due to the global setup. However, it is an asset to the flood risk management of large trans-national river basins, not least because it is free of charge and open to everyone who registers as a user. As for EFAS, GloFAS provided even estimates and maps of the potential socio-economic impact of flooding events. GloFAS data are freely accessible to all registered users through a dedicated web platform, the GloFAS map viewer.
If you are new to GloFAS you are welcome to browse the GloFAS User Guide, whereas more technical and in-depth information can be found in the GloFAS wiki.
The Global Flood Monitoring (GFM) product is a rather new component of CEMS that complements the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) of CEMS, by providing a continuous global, systematic, and automated satellite-based monitoring of all land surface areas possibly affected by flooding. The GFM product is designed to deliver, in near real-time, critical information on ongoing floods events to users worldwide, including national authorities, emergency units, research centres, decision-makers and other stakeholders. GFM data can be accessed via the EFAS or GloFAS map viewer or using the GFM data portal.
A more general Product User Manual is available as well as technical descriptions in the Product Definition Document.