Water management is an important issue in urban design due to the growing concern of water scarcity. Rainfall patterns are likely to change in the future as a consequence of climate change that may affect the performance of a residential rainwater harvesting system (i.e. water savings, reliability and water security) , based on the projected future rainfall conditions. As a result, rainwater harvesting systems (RWH) have received notable attention as an alternative water source. RWH is receiving renewed interest as a green infrastructure practice in the face of necessary adaptation to global climate change. Despite Albania has high quantity of water resources some regions in Albania are facing water scarcity nowadays. The increase of the population of the Tirana city has brought increase in the demand for water. The increasing water demand has triggered the initiatives to look for alternative water supply.

Knowing that forest fires represent a constant threat to ecological systems, infrastructure, economy and human lives, it is necessary to undertake joint actions towards increasing the level of protection against forest fires.

Alerting the population that lives or occasionally is situated in an urban area that is expected to be hit by one or several extreme weather events. SAEx –L advises on the actions people have to undertake according to the specific extreme weather phenomenon expected to happen and also, enables the connection of people at risk with rescue and relief teams.

Heavy rainfall and/or high discharges upstream cause rising water levels in rivers and streams. Certainly in steep areas this could lead to extremely fast rising water levels and unexpected flooding in watersheds due to overtopping embankments and failing levees - causing victims and economical damage. With real time information about weather forecasts and water levels, Nelen & Schuurmans has proven to be able to develop operational Flood Forecasting Systems of watersheds with the hydrologic and hydraulic model 3Di - including warning messaging. (Parramatta (Australia) and Taiwan). Worldwide these (kind of) flood forecasting models do not yet take into account the actual performance and presence of levees - while they significantly effect flood patterns and flood risk. The idea of this proposal is to improve operational flood forecasting systems by adding actual levee performance.

Urban floods are identified as one of Helsinki’s most important climate hazards. Coupled with population growth and densifying urban structure, flood risk is likely to increase significantly. Apart from problems arising from the water being in the wrong place at the wrong moment, the poor quality of stormwater is a serious issue for the receiving water bodies. In the downtown Helsinki, the stormwater is discharged to the Gulf of Finland which is already suffering from excess nutrient load and other pollutants causing many harmful impacts in the ecosystem and reducing the recreational value. However, stormwater management requires space, which is very limited in the city. To meet this challenge, the City of Helsinki is testing a new nature-based solution in Taivallahti area, close to the city centre. The stormwater will be lead through a stormwater filtration unit to be purified before being discharged to the Gulf of Finland. The filtration unit will reduce the concentrations of solid substances, litter and different harmful substances such as microplastics. The pilot has been developed by by Olli Hakala from WSP Finland and Aalto University and it will be implemented in the Smart & Clean Stormwater project. The project has received funding from the Helsinki-Uusimaa Regional Council.

Pollution, climate change and population growth are expected to affect 5 billion people by 2050 . Today, 850 million people have to worry about how they are going to provide drinking water for their families. Problems with high levels of contamination and/or salinity of drinking water sources are continuously increasing. For many people there are currently no affordable water purification solutions available, this is also the case in the aftermath a natural disaster. Buying water of unknown quality or producing more bottled water, than the 500 billion water bottles the world is already producing each year, cannot be a sustainable solution for their drinking water problems. What is needed are solutions which can provide clean drinking water when the need is high, after a disaster and in the long run to increase their resilience.

Floods are the most common and costliest natural disasters around the globe. These events are one of the most prominent issues worldwide and affect the whole spectrum of rural-urban continuum resulting in a variety of damages. Floods account for 20-30% of the global economic losses from natural hazards, nearly 18.5 billion US dollars worldwide damage per year. There remains an urgent need for appropriate standards and certification schemes for flood resistant and FRe technology to enable better uptake of resilient measures for properties at high flood risk. In the UK, the National Standards Body (BSi) has produced a publicly available test specification, though this is too narrow in scope to include flood resilient materials and products, approved building details, design and installation. The SimuRes simulation service is seen as a way of improving (and establishing) flood resilient construction standards through robust testing protocols, innovative computer simulation and research for new materials and products. The new service will create an environment in which innovation is encouraged among the SME manufacturers, suppliers and designers that are prevalent in this sector. The data and findings produced by the simulations will support research and development, testing and certification, training of the labour force, and demonstration and marketing.

Existing future vulnerability to natural disasters assessments is often limited accounting for projected changes in future climate. However, not only is climate changing, but also populations (aging, social welfare, migration, etc). and urban environments are (increase of green areas, development of high rise buildings etc.). Therefore all these three aspects should be considered when assessing future population's vulnerability.

A flood is the most common and the most damage inflicting natural disaster. Climate change causes more frequent extreme precipitation events globally. While increased urbanization increases soil sealing degree and limits water infiltration. Therefore in future the flood impact can be even greater. In 1997 FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency in US) developed a GIS-based risk assessment software called HAZUS97. Today it is known as Hazus-MH (Hazards US - Multi Hazard) and is capable to assess risk and damages caused by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis. Hazus-MH works only with US datasets thus any analysis outside US is not possible. HAZ-I solves this issue by overcoming a number of technical and conceptual problems and gives users a possibility to create their own flood study region anywhere in the world.

Urbanisation and agriculture in the Rhine basin have driven loss of water storage capacity in floodplains and marshes and soils of smaller valleys and have caused ecosystem degradation. Changing precipitation patterns due to climate change are expected to lead to increased peak flows as well as critically low water levels. The combination of both developments increase the chance of severe impacts on society. Precipitation falling on the plateaus and slopes in the Middle Rhine region comes down as throughflow (water flowing through the soil) and passes the valley floor before entering the stream. Drained valley floors accelerate this process, i.e. artificial drainage “empties” the hydrological column of entire slope and plateau, contributing to flood peaks in the tributaries to the Rhine.