The Copernicus EU space programme led by DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs has entered its full operational phase following the adoption of the Copernicus Regulation in April 2014 (Copernicus programme 2014–2020 repealing Regulation (EU) No 911/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council 2009/0070(COD)). The emergency management services (EMSs) mapping and early warning system (EWS), which have been initial operational activities since April 2012 and October 2012 respectively, will continue as a full operational service as defined in Article 5 of the Copernicus Regulation. Copernicus EMS is operating in direct support to the European civil protection mechanism executed by the European Response Coordination Centre (ERCC) and the EU Member States.
The implementation of the Copernicus EMS has 4 different modules:
1. The EMS rapid mapping:
on-demand and fast provision of geospatial information in support to emergency management activities immediately following an emergency event.
2. The EMS risk and recovery mapping:
on-demand provision of geospatial information in support to emergency management activities during the phases of the emergency management cycle not related to the immediate response, i.e. not requiring rush mode delivery. In particular, information provision relates to the prevention, preparedness and reconstruction phases.
3. The EMS validation:
verification of a sample of service outputs produced by Copernicus emergency management service rapid mapping or Copernicus emergency management service risk and recovery mapping services, and includes external quality control, validation of thematic information content and comparison to alternative information sources related to the emergency context.
4. The EMS early warning:
Its first building block is the European flood awareness system (EFAS) delivering added value information to the national hydrological services and provides a unique overview on the current and forecast flood situation. The second building block will be from 2015 onwards via the European forest fire information system (EFFIS) which delivers harmonised information on forest fires in Europe.
This framework contract refers to the EMS early warning. The objective of the framework contract is to provide the (EMS) with the necessary meteorological and hydrological observed in situ and remote sensing data to operate its early warning systems.
The contract has 2 lots:
lot 1: meteorological data collection in support to the early warning systems of the Copernicus emergency management service;
lot 2: hydrological data collection in support to the early warning systems of the Copernicus emergency management service.