Guidelines Commission
Natural Hazards group
Meeting:
20 March 2014 in Leuven, Belgium
Present:
Matti Orrainen (chairman), Finland; Ib Bertelsen, Denmark; Lars Brodin,
Sweden, Jeanine Driessens (hostess), Belgium; Adair Lewis, UK; Miguel
Vidueira, Spain; and Mingyi Wang, Germany
Not present: - Mateja Gris, Slovenia
Minutes
1. Welcome
a) Welcome and agenda. Matti welcomes everybody and congratules Jeanine and the
ANPI for the dinner on 19th and general organization. The agenda was confirmed.
2. Minutes from last meeting
Minutes from the meeting in Bled, September 12, are ok for everyone. Regarding chapter
1b) from the minutes, Matti informs that Miguel will be elected as chairman of the
Guidelines Commission in coming CFPA General Assembly, in May. Matti also informs
that Mingyi has accepted to be the vicechairman-secretary of our Commission when
Miguel is the chair.
3. Comments concerning ratification. Decision about ratification.
a) “Protection roof from collapse under heavy snow”. Members of CFPA E had possibility
to give comments and vote about the proposal between 7/10/2013 to 31/01/2014. Only
one country, France, has voted against ratification. In order to consider France comments,
we discuss to change the title. It is decided that the title will be “Managing heavy snow
loads in the roofs”. In the scope a new sentence will be added, something like “Roof
construction design is not the topic of this Guideline, since these requirements are already
considered in the Eurocodes”. All other countries has voted yes for ratification with no
comments. We decided to ratify the proposal as Guideline No. 5:2014 N in March. Adair
has already made the English wash.
4. Proposal for discussion.
a) “Heavy rain”. A colleague from Matti will join the Commission since our next
meeting. She is expert in natural hazards, and she will develop this “Heavy rain”
guideline and will be back for our meeting in October. We decide that the title could
be “Planning and managing the effects from heavy rain”.
b) “Forest fires”. Miguel showed a short presentation about the contents of the document,
since it was circulated too late and the members had not the opportunity to go through
it. Commission members will send their comments to Miguel before the 1st of
September. It is decided that the title for this guideline will be “Prevention of fires in
the countryside”. Also it is decided that when speaking about safety distances in the
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guideline, it will be stated that “minimum safety distances are stated according to
Spanish experience”.
c) “Water supplies for sprinkler systems in dry periods”. Adair says the sprinkler
standards are being rewritten in the UK, so it does not make sense to produce a
guideline on this topic until they have the final version of these standards. He will try
to make a first draft for next meeting.
d) “Hail”. Mingyi says they have begun a project on this topic yesterday. They are
looking for statistics about hail storms, but not only for the number and location of
storms, but also for the intensity and the size of hail. He thinks it is preferred to wait
and collect more data before giving recommendations in a guideline.
e) “Earthquake”. We have not received information about this topic from any country. In
the Guideline Commission meeting this afternoon Matti will ask again every members
to collect information in each country about this subject.
5. Ideas for new proposals
a) “Landslides”. Lars has collected some information from the Swedish Civil
Contingencies Agency, but they have some doubts about making the material
“European” because the conditions could be very different in different countries. We
also speak about coastal erosion and the stability problems for buildings that are very
close to the coast. We decide that it is a good idea to consider also coastal erosion in
this “Landslides” guideline, and make it more general. We will ask Harry for their
experience in Switzerland. Matti will put Lars in contact with a Norwegian expert on
this subject. Adair will also look for some information.
b) “Cold weather”. We decide that this guideline would be mainly about freezing, and
that maybe it has not enough content. It remains in the “waiting list”.
c) “Fog”. Although there have been some car disaster because of fog, we do not see it
clear how to produce a guideline about this topic. It remains in the “waiting list”.
d) “Solar storms”. For the moment we have no expertise on this topic. It remains in the
“waiting list”.
e) “Snow slides”. Waiting list.
f) Other. We think that “Tsunami” can be a topic. We have no experience in our
countries about this. Matti and Miguel will meet the chairman of CFPA-I in May. He´s
from Malaysia so maybe he can give us some information.
Adair says some buildings are having structural problems because of the weather
conditions (floods, heavy rain, etc.). This is a problem also in other countries. We will
keep this idea in the “waiting list”.
Mingyi says it could be a good idea to produce a guideline about “Mobile flood
protection systems”. We all agree it is a very interesting topic. He can develop a first
paper to discuss.
Miguel says that we could produce something about “Snow storms”. Matti says it is
difficult to define the scope. They have produced something about preparing the home
for a snow storm, her colleague from SPEK will bring some information about this
next meeting. Also Adair will send information.
Finally, Adair makes a proposal about “Emergency power supplies”. It is a good idea
from our “Natural hazards” perspective, and also for fire protection.
6. Time limits
Documents and comments for the next meeting should be sent to Miguel by the 1st of
september.
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7. Any other business
The cover of the guidelines will have a good picture for coming guidelines in order to
make them more attractive. Also previous guidelines will adapt to this new template when
revising.
8. Next meetings.
After this meeting the Natural Hazards Group will meet:
- 2014, October 6 in Switzerland,
- 2015, April 16 in Finland (will be probably together with the training
commission),
- 2015, September 17 in Denmark, and
- 2016, March in France
- 2016, September in Norway
Meeting in Switzerland will probably oblige most of us to travel on Sunday evening. We
will ask Harry for the details. Meeting in Finland will be shared with Training
Commission so members will probably have to travel on Wednesday to have more time to
develop all the work.
/ Miguel Vidueira
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