Training Workshops
Our learning activities
Workshops and TRAINING MATERIALS
In this page, you will find material from MedEWSa workshops and training events, complementing the e-learning material for self-paced learning. It is proposed in two formats. Recordings of workshops and meetings cover topics relevant to MedEWSa. Training modules, consisting of decks of slides with lecture notes and an interactive scenario exercise, can be reused by anyone wanting to train others. The materials have been designed to reach a wide audience and are accessible to different levels of knowledge, from experts and internal users to external learners.
Workshops and Meetings
Description: In this short video, we introduce the main outcomes and lessons learned from the work on risk transfer solutions and parametric insurance mechanisms as part of the MedEWSa project.
Target Audience: users and external learners, internal consumers, experts
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 3:58
Source: YouTube
Description: In this short video, we introduce the topics of risk transfer and parametric insurance. The video is based on a presentation given during the MedEWSa General Assembly in September 2025.
Target Audience: users and external learners, internal consumers, experts
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 4:13
Source: YouTube
Description: In this short video, we introduce the concepts of parametric triggering and loss catalogue creating within a catastrophe modelling framework developed for the MedEWSa cat model. The video is based on a presentation given during the MedEWSa General Assembly in September 2025.
Target Audience: users and external learners, internal consumers, experts
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 9:25
Source: YouTube
Training modules
Introduction to Early Warning Systems
Description: In this PowerPoint deck of slides, we introduce Early Warning Systems as coordinated systems that turn early signals into early action. We present the four pillars of an effective system defined by the UN Early Warnings for All initiative, with operational examples from EFFIS and EFAS, and explain the forecast value chain and why warning systems can still fail. The slides have complementary notes and can be easily translated for reuse.
Target Audience: researchers on EWS, civil protection
Level: Basic
Duration: 20 min
Source: Zenodo
Hazard forecasting, uncertainty and hazard indicators
Description: In this PowerPoint deck of slides, we explain how forecasts of physical variables become signals of hazard by comparing them with thresholds. We cover predictability across lead times, ensemble forecasts and probabilities, ECMWF’s extreme-weather indices (EFI and SOT), and hazard indicators such as the Fire Weather Index, UTCI and SPEI. The slides have complementary notes and can be easily translated for reuse.
Target Audience: researchers on EWS, civil protection
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 30 min
Source: Zenodo
From hazard to impact: exposure and vulnerability
Description: In this PowerPoint deck of slides, we explain why the same hazard does not cause the same impacts everywhere, and introduce risk as the combination of hazard, exposure and vulnerability. Mediterranean examples, including Storm Daniel, the Thessaly floods and the Rhodes wildfires, show how this information turns hazard forecasts into potential impacts. The slides have complementary notes and can be easily translated for reuse.
Target Audience: researchers on EWS, civil protection
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 30 min
Source: Zenodo
From hazard and impact indicators to threshold and risk matrix
Description: In this PowerPoint deck of slides, we show how hazard and impact information supports decisions, following the chain from indicator to threshold, trigger and action. We explain how the risk matrix brings likelihood and impact together, following WMO guidance, with a worked GloFAS example showing how decisions are updated as an event approaches. The slides have complementary notes and can be easily translated for reuse.
Target Audience: researchers on EWS, civil protection
Level: Intermediate
Duration: 30 min
Source: Zenodo
End-to-End Scenario Exercise: From Forecast to Warning Communication and Operational Decision Support
Description: In this interactive exercise, participants follow how evolving forecast information supports wildfire preparedness and response in Attica. Working in stakeholder teams, they review real forecast products at 12, 5, 3 and 1 day before the event and place their assessment on a risk matrix. They then draft a public warning and analyse the real event, the Keratea and Megara wildfires of August 2025. The exercise was first delivered at the MedEWSa training event in Athens in October 2026.
Target Audience: researchers on EWS, civil protection
Level: Advanced
Duration: 120 min
Source: Zenodo
