The 2022 Annual Survey was the first survey to include feedback for both the Global Flood Awareness System (GloFAS) and the Global Flood Monitoring (GFM). The survey was conducted in February 2023 for the reference year 2022. 

The results of the survey can be found in the attached document; a short summary of the main outcomes with specific focus on the action items is presented below.

Survey participants were generally satisfied with the GloFAS and GFM products, which they could adequately explore via the GloFAS Map Viewer. A few minor adjustments could help to further improve the user experience (e.g., more detailed legends, shortcuts to documentation, a more effective colour palette). For the GloFAS layers, the 2022 survey confirmed the positive response of the previous survey. The level of satisfaction for the GFM layers was equally generally high.

GloFAS and GFM documentation content has been rated as satisfactory. Users’ awareness of GloFAS resources (Forecast Wiki, CEMS Flood Data User Guide, webinars) increased in 2022 thus encouraging a continued communication effort, which must now include the recently published GloFAS User Guide and the extensive GFM documentation (Monitoring Wiki, including the Quick Start Guide). Communication efforts about products and services should focus on GloFAS and GFM data download opportunities.  

Regarding future developments, GloFAS users showed high interest in improving the modelling of river routing. For GFM, the users expressed interest in the release of a product capable of estimating the water depth in flooded areas.

The following actions were completed within 1 year since the survey:

• Improvements of the GloFAS web page (www.globalfloods.eu/) to ameliorate the communication of GloFAS and GFM opportunities and developments: introduction of a new functionality to allow users to search through the archive of news items  www.globalfloods.eu/news/search/; restructuring of the tab "Resources" which now allows to quickly find webinars (www.globalfloods.eu/get-involved/webinars/), users feedback (https://www.globalfloods.eu/get-involved/users-feedbacks/), and events (www.globalfloods.eu/get-involved/events/).
• Improved communication of GloFAS and GFM data download opportunities and modalities: publication of GloFAS data access training material developed by ECMWF: www.globalfloods.eu/news/149-training-material-for-accessing-and-working-with-cems-glofas-data/; enahnced documentation about accessing and using GFM data and GloFAS data;  dedidated session during the CEMS Annual Conference in October 2023 (OBSERVER: The CEMS 2023 Annual Conference - 5 key takeaways if you are interested in disaster risk management | Copernicus);
• Improve the level of detail of GloFAS product layers: with GloFAS v4.1 (Feb. 28th 2024) information on country and basin name are included to the dynamic reporting points pop-up table. 
• Improve legend descriptions in the Map Viewer for GloFAS products: this improvement has been included in GloFAS release v4.1 (Feb. 28th 2024).
• Make the GFM quick-start guide more adaptive when displayed on a laptop: the new version released through Rise360 allows users to select a full screen mode.
• Improve the level of detail of GFM product layers and products portfolio: updated GFM Affected Population layer; release of the maximum flood extent feature which provides the composite of all GFM Observed Flood Extent output layers available within a user-specified 2-month period; additional option to use pre-defined administrative boundaries (Admin0, Admin1) for defining the AOI when retrieving GFM product output layers. 
• Improved GFM data download functionalities: possibility of bulk download for individual layers, to assist the map generation for large flooded areas. 

The list below enumerates some of the actions that have been planned to acknowledge GloFAS and GFM users’ feedback:

• Improve legend descriptions in the Map Viewer for GFM products - ongoing.
• Conitnued review of the FAQ section of the CEMS GloFAS User Guide.
• Continued improvement of the internal protocol to respond to the requests submitted via the GloFAS and GFM Contact Form.
• GloFAS long term (multi-year) development: improved modelling of river routing.
• GFM long term (multi-year) development: estimation of the water depth in flooded areas.

The first Annual Survey was conducted in February 2022 and it gathered the feedback for the year 2021. This survey focused exclusively on the GloFAS service (the Global Flood Monitoring product was released in operation in 2022).

The results of the survey can be found in the attached document; a short summary of the main outcomes with specific focus on the action items is presented below.

The most preferred channel to access GloFAS products is the GloFAS webpage (91% of the responders). On average, 80% of the responders think the GloFAS layers are clearly explained and intuitive. The responders expressed interest in attending webinars, and they would like to receive updates via emails and posts on the GloFAS website. Nevertheless, the survey uncovered the need to improve communication about GloFAS resources (e.g. online documentation), data availability, and upcoming updates, and to facilitate the interactions between the users and the CEMS Floods team.

The following actions were completed within 1 year since the completion of the survey:

• All the webinars can be accessed from this page.
• New! A pop-up top banner is visible in the map viewer to facilitate the communication of relevant updates.
• The online documentation available from the Forecast Wiki has been reviewed and expanded to include a GloFAS User Guide, which provides instructions for data visualization and access, and advice on how to use the data.
• The internal protocol to respond to the requests submitted via the GloFAS Contact Form has been reviewed.