New tool for emergency planning during extreme floods

Screenshot of the flood tool with a regional estimate of affected buildings in an extreme precipitation scenario. Mobiliar Lab of the University of Bern - The Mobiliar Lab for Natural Risks of the University of Bern shows that far greater floods are possible in Switzerland than previously assumed. These extreme events underscore the importance of supra-regional emergency planning. A new modeling tool is designed to help manage large floods. Even experts could not have imagined the extent of these floods: Nobody had expected the devastating storms of summer 2021 in Germany. This shows that floods are possible that massively exceed the previous range of experience - also in Switzerland. We have to think the unthinkable: extreme precipitation scenarios that have never occurred before are possible," says Olivia Romppainen, professor of climate impact research and co-director of the Mobiliar Lab.