Services and Projects

CENTAUR

Copernicus ENhanced Tools for Anticipative response to climate change in the emergency and secURity domain – CENTAUR was created to respond proactively to the challenges posed by climate change in the emergency management and security sectors. The project aims to enhance the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) and Copernicus Support to EU External Action (SEA), offering innovative tools to anticipate and address complex and rapidly evolving crisis scenarios.

Through the development of new indicators and models, CENTAUR aims to improve awareness of emerging risks and strengthen the resilience and adaptation capacities of communities. The project focuses on two key thematic areas:

  • Emergency: with a focus on risks arising from urban flooding;

  • Security: with a focus on the impacts of drought and food insecurity.

Financing authority

European Commission European Commission

Objectives

CENTAUR intends to develop a new generation of indicators capable of measuring climate impacts in environmental, economic, and social terms, both in the prevention and emergency response phases. The objective is twofold:

Support operational decisions

through reliable tools that can be integrated into existing CEMS and SEA workflows;

Foster community adaptation,

thanks to a better understanding of risk dynamics.

An interactive web platform

The heart of the project will be an interactive web platform, where users can consult thematic indicators on historical events related to floods, droughts, and food crises. All developed tools will be scientifically validated to ensure reliability.

One of the key objectives is the concrete integration of these indicators into Copernicus service operations, elevating their quality and scope.

Innovation elements

CENTAUR does not simply adapt existing tools: the indicators are designed from scratch, combining environmental, economic, and social data in a new and targeted way. The project utilizes heterogeneous sources—from meteorological models to data extracted from social media—and processes them through conceptual models, numerical simulations, and Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms.

This approach allows for addressing complex crisis scenarios with a higher level of analysis compared to current standards.

A team effort

CENTAUR is carried out by a broad European consortium that combines scientific, operational, and technological expertise. Partners include E-GEOS, SATCEN, ECMWF, VITO, GMV, HENSOLDT, SERTIT, DLR, Adelphi, and many others. Ithaca is among the central actors of the project.

Within the consortium, Ithaca is involved in the development and validation of indicators, with a particular focus on the “emergency” domain and operational integration into CEMS workflows. Furthermore, it participates in the design of the web platform and the selection of reference climate datasets.