SMARTEST – Smart Resilience Technology, Systems and Tools
Project Overview
The EU-funded ‘Smart resilience technology, systems and tools’ (SMARTEST) project was initiated to promote the adoption of flood protection technologies and facilitate the design of holistic flood defence systems. During its three-year lifetime, it sought to open the route to market for innovation and support implementation of the European policy on flood risk management. SMARTEST brought together academics and researchers from different disciplines who analysed how conventional technologies for flood protection are deployed. After reviewing the best and worst practices in the adaptation or construction of buildings, they developed guidelines for employing flood protection systems. The European market has seen the emergence of smart flood resilience technology. Such technology may be based on automatic control of barriers and protection walls, or innovative materials for higher performance. SMARTEST partners worked with manufacturers, consultants, the insurance industry, environmental agencies and local authorities to establish standards and test the new products.
Project Results
Project researchers have developed models to assess the extent of flooding and help decision makers be better informed of the potential impact. Linked to the decision-support platform available on the project website (at the moment this needs password), these can be used to determine the benefits of flood protection technologies. After identifying a range of innovative FRe technology, they were tested in association with manufacturers and suppliers. Test results of 25 products including perimeter, building aperture, and building and infrastructure technologies are presented in the SMARTeST report. The test results enabled the assessment of the functionalities of different FRe technologies with a view to improving their performance by detecting the product weaknesses. Only the final report was available online on Cordis – the website is not available anymore. Detailed description of some of the impact and technology involved on the Cordis page about Reporting.