TELEFLEUR is the acronym of "TELEmatics-assisted handling of FLood Emergencies in URban areas", a "Telematics Applications Programme Environment", pertaining to DGXIII (Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research) of the European Commission.

This project, started on 1 January 1998 and ending on 30 June 2000, will be developed by the National Observatory of Athens, Water Corporation and G-System, again in Athens, the Departement of Physics of the University of Genova, the Regione Liguria, the International Institute for Infrastructure, Hydraulics & Environmental Engineering, in Delft, The Netherlands, and the Ingenieurbuero Brandt-Gerdes-Sitzmann Wasserwirtschaft GmbH di Darmstadt, Germany.

"The objective of this project", it is written in the Project programme," is the development of a comprehensive operational system for handling urban flood emergencies that synthesises cutting edge telematics technology with advanced forecasting of meteorology and hydrology encapsulated in a Decision Support System (DSS). The utility of a validated, integrated system shall be demonstrated in Athens and in Genova, Liguria. Substantial government support has been secured at both sites: Regione Liguria already operates a flood forecasting centre and is interested in enhancing its capability; the Water Company of Athens, which has the support of the Hellenic Ministry of Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, aspires to establish such a capability.

Essential for the effectiveness of such plans are sound forecasts of the evolving phenomena, from storm to flood. For this purpose, data must be collected in real-time from various sensors and platforms and transmitted to a command centre for use in meteorological and hydrologic/hydraulic models. Based on model forecasts and knowledge of the conditions of the drainage system, the public authority can decide on how to allocate resources for optimal emergency control."

For both sites, Athens and Regione Liguria, the BOLAM-99 hydrostatic model has been selected for operational use during the project.

At DIFI, The European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF, in Reading, UK) gridded fields on pressure levels and at surface are objectively analysed on BOLAM grids, in order to initialise the model and to update the lateral boundary region of the model every six hours. Since ECMWF fields are not yet available from the Hellenic National Meteorological Service, data from the Aviation Model (AVN, provided by the National Weather Service of USA) are used at NOA.

The operational use of BOLAM 99 started on 6th September 1999 at DIFI and on 1^st November 1999 at NOA. Daily results from the operational applications of BOLAM 99 can be found on the web.

• DIFI results are provided from: http://www.cmirl.fisica.unige.it/MAP/BOLAM/bolamin.htm,

• NOA results are provided from: http://www.noa.gr/~telefleu

Precipitation fields of the inner grid simulations are also used as input of the hydrological model. Rainfall data are produced daily by DIFI and NOA, in an identical format, that cover the Entella basin (East Liguria) and Kifissos basin, respectively.

The results so far have demonstrated the ability of the model to forecast weather condition on both areas with good accuracy. Preliminary statistical evaluation of model results shows low values of root mean square error of forecasted temperature and geo-potential height. This evaluation will continue for the entire operational phase of the project.