by EFAS DISS and HYDRO Centers

Hydrometeorological Research Centre of Russia has been an EFAS partner since 2017 and wanted to have more information about EFAS, so they requested for a workshop. (If you would like to do the same, please, use info@efas.eu).

The training took place in Moscow at the Hydrometcentre of Russia on 11-12 October 2018. It was held by Elinor Andersson and Michaela Mikuličková from the EFAS Dissemination Centre (DISS) and Mercedes García Padilla, Rafael J. García Sánchez and Clint García Alibrandi from the Hydrological Data Collection Centre (HDCC).

The objective of the mission was to:

• Introduce EFAS and train the participants in how to use EFAS-IS
• Show how to provide feedback for received notifications
• Instruct how to provide hydrological station data

This was the first mission where two EFAS Operational centres have visited a partner at the same time. Participants were hydrological forecasters, people working with hydrological data and researchers. Some of them were from the Moscow office and some of them were from other regional offices in Russia. Some of them had got experience with EFAS usage, for some it was their first meeting with the system.

The presentations were held in English with help from English to Russian translators for some of the sessions.

After a joint introduction of the EFAS (EFAS general information, information about LISFLOOD model, probabilistic forecasting, meteorological inputs, EFAS thresholds, EFAS notifications, and flash‑floods) participants were divided in two smaller groups. One of the session was dedicated to a run through of the operations carried out by the HDCC team and clarifications on issues concerning the establishment of data transfer protocols between the hosts of the meeting and EFAS. The second one was a “hands-on session” which described how to use EFAS-IS and what the different layers meant. The participants were encouraged to try using it in their own laptops.

EFAS DISS talked about new EFAS products and the second day was dedicated to instructions on how to provide feedback and to a case study of the Russian spring flood of 2018.

Because a large part of Russia is outside the EFAS domain, a part of the workshop was concerned with information about GloFAS: what it was, how to register and log in and how to use the forecast viewer.

The end of both days was devoted to questions from the participants. DISS answered general questions and Hydrological Data Collection centre could give answers to the more technical questions. Questions that couldn’t be answered at the place were forwarded to the Computational Centre and to JRC.

The participants were satisfied with the workshop and expressed their gratitude for the training.