The enormous balance of damage from the passage of the DANA through various parts of the Iberian Peninsula –with special virulence in the Country Valencia, where the storm has caused dozens of deaths– has once again put on the table the need to prepare to face episodes of this type. And despite the fact that storms that generate significant flooding are relatively common in the Mediterranean climate, they all Scientific evidence indicates that as a result of climate change they will increase and gain intensity.
In this sense, the scientists consulted are clear that the path would have to involve planning and executing “adaptation” policies to the climate emergency. Among other issues, these would have to cause profound changes in urban planning and, in certain cases, involve the transfer of railway lines, the reform of seafront promenades and even demolish buildings in areas with the highest risk of flooding where, to begin with, , it should never have been built.
This week’s DANA is only the latest example of a debate that breaks through when there is a storm that causes profound damage, as also happened following fortunately less deadly cases. like the cold drop that hit the Terres de l’Ebre in September of last yearhe temporary Glòria of 2020 or the storm Filomena of 2021.
But so far it has not gone beyond a “dynamic of reacting to events.” [meteorológicos]without the planning by the administrations having changed,” points out Carles Ibanezscientific director of Center on Climate Resilience (CRC), a space dedicated to promoting research and innovation in adaptation to the climate emergency.
Leave space for water
For Ibáñez, we must rethink the coast, which can be affected both by floods coming from the continent, as well as by storm surges or sea storms that come from the coast and by accelerating sea level growth. But also “the spaces of rivers and streams, because they have little space to evacuate water” when, due to a storm, they experience sudden growth.
“We have to rethink the territory and apply the perspective of the horizon of climate change, which accentuates extreme phenomena“adds the director of the CRC, a project promoted by the technology center Eurecatalong with the Rovira i Virgili University (URV) of Tarragona and the Amposta Town Hallwhere it is located.
In this sense, the scientist sees it as essential that administrations “assume as a high-level transversal objective to try to anticipate part of these damages” caused by extreme weather events, which implies “planning short, medium and long-term measures.” Damage that is accentuated in those territories where flood-prone areas have been urbanized or field fields have proliferated which, in practice, leave rivers, streams or torrents without a natural space that they recover with force when there are floods. Certain canals or a large part of the promenades also limit the space for water to rise, whether from a river or from the sea in the case of a rise.
The scientific director of the CRC emphasizes that “climate change adaptation policies” are neededbut points out that it has to be a “very local adaptation”, since “what works for one municipality does not work for another.” “There must be general principles and from here a very detailed knowledge of the terrain to make the adaptation effectively and not make a poor adaptation, which complicates it even more,” he says. Thus, for example, “we will find places where it will be inevitable to demolish buildings, others in which the promenades will have to be pushed back so that they can be sustainable or infrastructure moved.”
And what is a maladaptation? Well, when “the only thing we do is rebuild the infrastructure that has been destroyed by a storm, if you want in a more reinforced way, because in this way we make the problem chronic.” That is why it is essential to carry out a prior analysis to identify the “critical points and think about the redesign of urban planning and infrastructure to adapt to the new situation.”
“The key is to gain accommodation space both on the coast and in the network of rivers and streams, so that water and sediments can flow.” without causing great damage, he continues. Ibañez focuses on the fact that it is imperative to “redesign the uses of the territory so that they are more compatible” with phenomena that are increasing and, therefore, “anticipate what will also happen.”
“For example, we have to leave space for the sea, because it will grow equally,” he points out, which means widening the beaches. This also affects David Pinoprofessor of the Physics department of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), which reiterates how “a larger beach has a greater capacity to dissipate wave energy and rising sea levels, since it acts as a natural defense mechanism for the coast.”
Pino is also coordinator of the MEDIFLOOD projecta catalog that collects 14,500 cases of pluvial and fluvial flooding on the peninsular Mediterranean coast for a millennium and that allows us to see the effects of urban planning in the face of natural phenomena in order to prevent them with greater guarantees.
Urban planning in flood zones
In the specific case of Catalonia, 15% of the urbanized surface is in a flood zone, whether river or sea, according to the RiskCat report, which is responsible for evaluating the risks of natural phenomena. He Baix Ebre and the Montsia –the two regions where the Delta de l’Ebre is located–, parts of the Maresme coast and La Selva –especially the final stretch of the Tordera Riverbetween Malgrat de Mar and Blanes–, the closest areas in the Llobregat –especially the Delta– and the Besòs of the metropolitan area of Barcelonapoints of Alt Empordà (Girona) and areas of the city of Lleida either Girona They are among those with the highest risk of flooding, partly also because most have a high level of urbanization.
According to Carles Ibáñez, this “It is a mortgage that we carry from the past decades, when it was built in areas where it should not have been built.“and, therefore, now it would be time to “rethink planning” in the highest risk areas and “redo infrastructure as there are opportunities.”
In a previous interview with this newspaperDavid Pino argued that “we know that these phenomena [extremos] will continue to happen and, therefore, we have to ask ourselves the question of what we want to do.
Continue making an investment to try to temporarily alleviate the effects of a flood and return to the previous situation? Or make a much larger investment and see in which areas we can save that when there are floods it will affect the population? Because if no one lives, the impact is much smaller.” A reflection that is fully valid these days.
However, Carles Ibáñez points out that “the economic actors themselves would have to see that this is an opportunity to make a more humane, habitable and well-designed urban planningto leave behind what was done in a chaotic and very disorderly manner during the 60s and 70s of the last century.
Carles Ibáñez: “We are not directing resources towards these issues, which are priorities, and the longer we delay, the worse it will be”
Or even decades before, as is the case of the R1 line of Rodalieswhich passes through the first coastline of the region of Maresme (Barcelona) with beaches that have been losing width and that, according to him, should be “moved inland.” “Everyone knows that it has to be done, but it is not prioritized as an investment. We are not directing resources towards these issues, which are priorities, and the longer we delay, the worse it will be.” As a final note, the scientific director of the CRC concludes that “if we do not anticipate the problems We will end up paying more dearly in economic and infrastructure costs, but also in human lives.“. As, unfortunately, has been seen in the Valencian Country.
#Rethink #urbanism #resist #future #damage
