FlashFloodBreaker: Transforming emergency response through immersive reality and geospatial modelling

FlashFloodBreaker: Transforming emergency response through immersive reality and geospatial modelling The University of Luxembourg is leveraging drone photogrammetry, AR/VR simulation, and serious gaming to transform flash flood preparedness across Northwest Europe Northwest Europe (NWE) is facing an increasing frequency and severity of extreme flash flood disaster events. Driven by climate change, sudden high-energy flood events triggered by intense, short-duration rainfall over small catchments leave residents and emergency responders with minimal warning time. The tragic events of July 2021, which caused widespread devastation and fatalities across Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg, laid bare this region’s vulnerabilities. Unpredictable, rapid water level rises, high flow velocities, and cascading infrastructure failures overwhelmed early warning systems and caught populations off guard. To address this pressing challenge, the Interreg Northwest Europe programme has funded the FlashFloodBreaker project (2024 to 2028). An ambitious transnational initiative encompassing 13 partners from six countries, FlashFloodBreaker works to empower organisations responsible for flood management and residents in risk-affected areas, as well as scientists. The initiative is pioneering a joint strategy for effective flash flood risk management, advancing real-time prediction models, providing joint training schemes, and formulating six jointly piloted solutions spanning crisis unit preparation to on-the-ground rescue capabilities. As a core scientific partner in this consortium, researchers from Geodesy and Geospatial Engineering (GGE) within the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM) at the University of Luxembourg are translating high-fidelity geomatics research into actionable, life-saving awareness. Specifically, the GGE team is tackling the critical human element of disaster response by training residents and responders to make split-second decisions under extreme pressure using cutting-edge Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and immersive training applications, driven by high-resolution multi-source geospatial data.