Multi-hazard Risk Assessment of Basic Services and Transport Infrastructure in RN Macedonia, Greece and Albania Cross-Border Region – CRISIS Project

The main objective of CRISIS is to provide a qualitative basis for the development of a collaborative approach to prevention and preparedness for disaster risks and management in cross-border countries located in the Western Balkan Region, which is populated with more than half a million inhabitants. The project activities comprise of: (1) seismic and landslide hazard cross-border harmonization and mapping; (2) needs assessment, bottleneck analyses and review of EU and regional legislative and research related to risk assessment and disaster management; (3) cross-border risk assessment of basic service and transport infrastructure based on the development of a harmonized exposure model that encounters all the relevant risk assets and (4) development of a geo-referenced web-based platform (WBP) that contains exposure database and enables rapid risk information and prediction of possible losses and disruption of critical functions. This platform has modular architecture, with possibility to feature multi-hazards and to be implement in the broader region. The results of CRISIS project are twofold: (1) enhanced cross-border cooperation and coordination in disaster risk management based on developed models and tools and (2) raising public awareness and preparedness for disasters. The achievement of the results will impact the conditions under which, currently, decision-makers can obtain prompt risk information and predict possible losses to make an allocation of resources or establish prioritization actions. The project has potential to serve as pilot project and to enable transferability of the results and implementation of the developed platform outside of the project community.