An EU-funded project on the establishment of public-private partnerships in Armenia to address flood risks that stem from water and mine dam failures.

Disaster Experts Discuss Online Tools for Managing Flood Risks Caused by Hydro Dam Tailings Facility Failures in Armenia

On January 16-17, the American University of Armenia (AUA) Center for Responsible Mining and Armenia’s National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (ARNAP) jointly organized a dissemination event titled “The Role and Application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)  in Disaster Risk Management: ALTER Project Results Dissemination.” The event was held within the framework of the Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction (ALTER) project.

The aim of the two-day event was to present the GIS layers and tools developed in ALTER and their uses by key stakeholders, including the decision-makers, specialists and students. The aim of the ALTER project is to enhance community resilience in case of disasters (see here for aims and achievements of ALTER). 

In addition to the AUA Center for Responsible Mining experts, specialists from the Republic of Armenia’s (RA) Ministry of Emergency Situations and the RA Cadastre Committee also made presentations. The AUA Center for Responsible mining experts presented and engaged participants in using the web-based GIS tool developed as part of the ALTER project. These web-based tools are available at http://alter-flood-crm.aua.am.

“Such awareness-raising events are essential for the effective work of the MES. I am glad that we have touched upon online tools especially as we feel the need to develop more in this field. At the same time, I am pleased that various experts of the field participated in the workshop, which made the discussions more effective”, said Varditer Movsesyan, Chief Specialist of the Civil Defense and Elimination of Disaster Consequences Department of the Rescue Service, RA Ministry of Emergency Situations.

“Participants were very interested and actively involved in discussions. Data and tools developed by ALTER can be effectively used by the Rescue Service of RA Ministry of Emergency Situations and other relevant authorities and professionals to better organize their activities.  ALTER demonstrated the value of collaboration between universities, state agencies, private sector, and local communities in enhancing disaster resilience. We look forward to similar collaborations in the future,” said Alexander Arakelyan, the hydrogeological expert and project coordinator at the AUA Center for Responsible Mining.

A gallery of the training is available below.