Europe’s critical infrastructure (CI) is at risk of failure due to natural hazards and rapid climate change, which can lead to major physical and economic damages. Existing methods for climate risk analysis are not tailored to the complexities of CI: they do not properly account for systems interdependencies, while also still containing key data gaps. Public authorities urgently need tools to pinpoint the risk-prone areas and to develop affordable adaptation strategies to enhance CI resilience. The mission of the Multi-hazard Infrastructure Risk Assessment for Climate Adaptation (MIRACA) project is to catalyse and empower the implementation of adaptation measures for CI throughout Europe. The MIRACA Consortium will develop an evidence-based decision-support toolkit, consisting of (i) a guidance on technical and economic appraisal of adaptation strategies, (ii) a technical decision-support workbench and (iii) an online interactive viewer. These will be based on a multi-hazard climate risk assessment framework that employs advanced new methods of data acquisition, which will fill critical gaps in knowledge of the vulnerability and costs of CI. New model capabilities will be developed to fully appraise the benefits for people and businesses of climate-resilient infrastructure systems. We will demonstrate, validate, and promote the uptake of MIRACA’s research and innovation through five use cases. They cover a variety of locations, infrastructure types and natural hazards, and will allow public authorities and CI managers to test the effectiveness of adaptation solutions and to identify robust adaptation strategies. To propel transformative change, our methodologies will be made available through open-access datasets, model codes and online interactive visualisations. The toolkit will be implemented across Europe, most notably in regions and communities that are currently not well-prepared against future climate change and still confronted with data scarcity.

BASE-platform provides an innovative service for satellite derived bathymetric data for a broad range of users through a commercial service platform. Bathymetry is the measure of the water depth similar to underwater topography. BASE-platform has the ambition to establish a commercial service platform for bathymetric data, which is sharpened to user needs and provides most easy access. Its impact is expected to significantly influence the current market, its survey methodologies and the way bathymetric data can be accessed and used. Up-to date bathymetric data are essential for multiple purposes such as navigation, port and offshore construction, security, coastal zone management, fishery, cruising and tourism and required accordingly by various user groups. Conventional survey methods are either ship or airplane based and costly and time consuming. For these reasons, extended areas of shallow and deep water areas in Europe and worldwide are not mapped within an adequate accuracy or existing data are out of date. Earth Observation data, especially the Copernicus mission will play a key role to overcome this lack of data. BASE-platform focuses on Satellite Derived Bathymetry (SDB) as an innovative, rapid and cost effective approach to determine bathymetry from space. SDB in combination with hydrodynamic models to minimize tidal effects and crowd sourced bathymetric for validation purposes will provide those data. The BASE-platform service will be accessible through a commercial platform, which includes relevant components for a sustainable and client focused business. The services will be demonstrated, validated and improved in use cases. Relevant key players are involved for this purpose. The economic benefits of this new EO service will be analysed in a business analysis and model. Finally several dissemination actions will race awareness and increase the potential client group.