The main goal of the ENHANCE project is to develop and analyse new ways to enhance society’s resilience to catastrophic natural hazard impacts (hazards related to heat waves, forest fires, flood, drought, storm surge, and volcanic eruptions). This is done by providing new scenarios and information in selected hazard cases in close collaboration with stakeholders in 10 case studies, and by contributing to the development of new multi-sector partnerships to reduce or redistribute risk.

Key to successful partnerships is a common understanding of risks and the implications of proposed risk reduction instruments. ENHANCE facilitates a participatory process to develop MSPs in cases studies at different geographical- and spatial scales in Europe.

In these case studies the potential for new MSPs for managing different catastrophic hazards, including multi hazard events, are studied. The project will describe indicators for (un-) successful partnerships in improving resilience, and identify processes for fostering novel multi-sector partnerships (MSPs). Further, the project is set to provide methods and guidelines for a harmonised scheme for risk assessment and scenarios through an inventory of existing risk information, and by developing new methods and scenarios for (low-) probability risk assessment in collaboration with these MSPs. In different case studies, concepts of economic instruments, including insurance and risk management policies for MSPs will be tested. A harmonised dynamic scenarios of vulnerability, exposure, and hazard at the pan-European scale, using existing information and new probabilistic approaches for multi-hazards, heat-waves, forest fires, floods, droughts, storm surges, and volcanic eruptions;

Guidelines and key features for enhancing MSP interaction in successful resilience enhancement and risk reduction, pre-tested via participatory workshops on risk-based scenarios; Methods for linking MSPs to novel scientific risk scenarios and assessments;

A toolbox of economic instruments and non-structural mitigation measures at the national, regional, and local levels developed in a participatory manner and aimed at assessing risk and increasing societal resilience;

Policy recommendations to the EU and HFA (Hyogo Framework for Action) signatories delivered through a dissemination platform for enhancing resilience from high political levels to local communities.

The ENHANCE project started in December 2012 and it will run for 4 years.