Integrated Sea Storm Management Strategies (I-Storms)

Extreme sea storms events are recognized, by the scientific community, as one of the major factors, together with the anthropic pressures, affecting the coastal changes. Coastal flooding and erosion, impacts on ecosystems, and damages to infrastructures and productive activities can be worsened if combined with the absence of adequate early warning systems, coordinated strategies, or coastal management and planning, with significant related economic costs.

The I-STORMS partners jointly face the territorial challenges linked to lack of shared information and know-how on sea storms, poor macro-regional cooperation, low data interoperability, and lack of coordination and exchange on civil protection procedures. The aim is to enhance transnational cooperation sharing knowledge, data and forecasts through a common infrastructure and joint strategies to deal with sea storm emergencies, improving at the same time countries' capacities on data interoperability, early warning and civil protection procedures, in alignment with the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

The overall approach will ensure that current challenges are faced and overcome in the framework of the European Strategy of Adriatic Ionian region (EUSAIR) and with a medium-term implementation perspective.

Project benefits firstly tackle citizens of the Adriatic-Ionian coastal areas and competent public administrations, but also decision makers, sectoral agencies, marine productive activities, researchers and the scientific community.

The Open I-STORMS mobile app was developed to make the information about forecasts of sea level and wave available to the general public. The I-STORMS Guidelines were developed for translating data and forecasts to early warning and intervention procedures. The I-STORMS Strategy, addressed to national/regional key players of the ADRION basin, aims at suggesting the most effective way to deal with management of data and forecasts and related Early Warning procedures. Moreover, the I-STORMS project has developed the I-STORMS Web Integrated System (IWS), a common system/online tool to share and integrate data and information, fostering collaboration between partners for a better response to sea storms hazard/risk in the Adriatic-Ionion area, with the purpose of improving the typology and quality of data shared by competent actors in the region.