Strengthening the Resilience of Urban Water Systems to Climate Change and Flooding Through Risk Assessment Using New Findings and Analytical Methods (EUREKA)

The EUREKA project is developing an innovative, climate-resilient approach to assessing urban flood risks that goes beyond the current state of the art. The target is to support water management planning in Israeli and German cities that is adapted to climate change and ongoing urbanization. To this end, high-resolution, climate-sensitive tools for assessing flood risks are being developed.

The project combines non-stationary frequency analyses, climate projections with convective resolution, hydrodynamic simulations, and machine learning in a modular, web-based dashboard. Design precipitation events are generated for current and future climate conditions and then used in 1D/2D flood models to create hazard maps and generate training datasets for machine learning models.

Key innovations include machine learning models that reproduce complex simulations, thereby enabling rapid flood forecasts that can be applied to a variety of urban settings. The tools are being developed in collaboration with stakeholders at the local, regional, and national levels to ensure their practical relevance and user-friendliness.

By combining physical modeling with data-driven methods within a flexible and open framework, the project delivers a unique and scalable solution for climate-resilient urban flood planning. At the same time, it strengthens bilateral cooperation and opens up new opportunities for innovation in the water sector.