The Councillor for Emergencies, Víctor Valverde, has announced Orihuela Town Hall’s partnership in the European Horizon project “TOGETHER,” led by the Norwegian foundation NORSAR.
Building on previous collaborations focused on seismic risk prevention, this initiative aims to enhance early warning systems and detection methods for natural disasters.
Recent disasters, such as the floods in Valencia, have highlighted weaknesses in governance, risk management, and communication, exacerbating their impact. Valverde emphasised the importance of addressing these challenges, stating, “The TOGETHER project aims to strengthen multi-level and cross-sectoral coordination to create a disaster-resilient society, especially in the face of climate change and multi-hazard risks.”
Project Goals and Innovative Solutions
The TOGETHER project focuses on integrated governance to manage disasters more effectively. It will develop a toolkit incorporating:
Five Interoperability Frameworks: Legal, organizational, technical, semantic, and multi-domain frameworks to streamline data sharing.
A Multi-Tool System: Innovative technologies for disaster risk management.
An AI Agent: To generate actionable insights for disaster governance using shared data.
Disaster Risk Management Governance (DRMG): A system combining cutting-edge solutions with established best practices to improve coordination across governance levels.
The toolkit will employ a public-private-civic partnership (PPCP) model, tested in disaster risk management innovation centres in Norway, Greece, and Spain. Replication studies in Portugal and Turkey will evaluate its robustness in diverse contexts.
Orihuela’s Role in the Project
As a pilot city, Orihuela will play a key role in testing the toolkit during simulations of extreme flooding caused by torrential rains. Valverde expressed optimism, saying, “The seismic risk project taught us valuable lessons, and we hope to secure this grant to advance early warning coordination systems.”
A Collaborative Effort Across Europe
Orihuela’s participation is part of a broader collaboration with academic, municipal, and non-governmental organizations, including:
University of Alicante (Spain)
City Council of Oslo (Norway)
University of Agder (Norway)
University of Strathclyde (UK)
Red Cross (Turkey)
University of Porto (Portugal)
EUCENTRE Foundation (Italy)
Additional partners from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Greece, and Belgium are also contributing to the project.
Benefits for Orihuela
With the largest territory in Alicante province, Orihuela’s involvement will establish best practices and mechanisms for improved emergency response. The project aims to ensure the municipality is better prepared to handle crises, safeguarding residents and infrastructure against future disasters.
