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The BETA Technological Center will identify tools to reduce the risk of flash floods due to climate change
Flash floods occur as a result of heavy and short-lived rainfall, which appears suddenly at a local level, and is difficult to predict. These floods mainly affect small basins with steep gradients, which are characteristics that apply to 70% of Catalonia's river networks and 100% of those in the Balearic Islands. These are also very destructive phenomena which have become increasingly common in recent decades as a result of climate change. The BETA Technology Center at the University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) has launched a network which will identify the most suitable and accurate tools for reducing the risk associated with these flash floods. The project is being carried out with support from the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion (PME) through the grant awarded in its first Water Call.
The main goal of the initiative led by CT BETA, Sustainable solutions for flood risk management in river basins sensitive to the effects of climate change, is to identify integrated sustainable solutions that improve government agencies' and citizens' capacity to respond to flash floods. These integrated solutions involve first, implementing public education and awareness-raising measures, and second, developing reliable forecasting tools: "the integrated flood risk management projects that will be applied for as a result of to this grant will be based on three main areas: forecasting, prevention and action," explains Lorenzo Proia, who is coordinating the initiative with Meritxell Abril, who is also a researcher at the CT BETA. At the same time, they will promote the use of nature-based solutions as alternative tools to the construction of grey infrastructures (such as dikes) "in order to mitigate the impact of flash floods, while at the same time improving the ecological condition and the public perception of the small Mediterranean basins."
Seven members from Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Occitanie
The multidisciplinary network consists of a total of seven members from Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and the French region of Occitanie, including companies specialising in hydrometeorological forecasting models, river engineering and planning, government bodies, nature conservation associations, and various research groups working in different fields (water resources and global change, river ecosystems, nature-based solutions, social perception and citizen science). The beneficiaries and members of the consortium are the University of the Balearic Islands; Hydrometeorological Innovative Solutions S.L., ABM Serveis d’Enginyeria i Consulting S.L.U., in Catalonia; and the Laboratoire Écologie Fonctionnelle et Environnement – ECOLAB, the Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse (IMFT) and the Conservatoire d'Espaces Naturels de Midi-Pyrénées, in France. The Belgian company Naturem Solutions and the General Directorate of Water Resources of the Government of the Balearic Islands are also involved.
Unforeseen, fast, localised and highly destructive floods
Due to their characteristics, the small and steep basins that are found so often in Catalonia encourage rapid concentrations of surface water run-off caused by heavy rain falling in a short period of time, which leads to floods which spread at high speed. "In terms of risk, these types of floods are particularly dangerous and destructive, as they happen very quickly and locally, and they are very difficult to predict," says Proia. Some of the recent episodes that have led to significant material and human losses include the flooding in Sant Llorenç des Cardassar (Mallorca, 9 October 2018), where rainfall of between 350 and 400 mm were recorded at the source, which reached a maximum flow of 305 m3s-1 in 35 minutes, leaving 13 people dead; in Carcassonne (Occitanie, 15 October 2018), where around 250 L m-2 of rainfall fell in 12 hours and caused 10 deaths, and the rise of the river Francolí (Catalonia, 23 October 2019) which increased from a flow of 1 m3s-1 to 1,238 m3s-1 in just a few hours, causing the death of four people.
The Water Call is part of the strategy for developing an innovation ecosystem - one of the cornerstones of the Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion roadmap. When the project led by the CT BETA was awarded the grant, priority was given to its focus on the water sector, but its creation of synergies with other sectors that are a priority for the PME, such as tourism, food and agriculture and health, was also viewed in a positive light.
About the BETA Technological Center
The BETA Technology Center (Biodiversity, Ecology and Technology and Environmental and Food Management) at the UVic-UCC aims to contribute to improving the competitiveness and technological development of companies by carrying out R&D projects at a regional, state and European level, and to transfer of innovative and competitive technology, based on sustainability criteria, in the field of the food industry and the environment. It is a member of TECNIO, a network that promotes differential technology, business innovation and excellence in Catalonia, and identifies technology centres and university groups that are experts in research and technology transfer.
The Applied Aquatic Ecology and Ecotoxicology research line aims to establish close links between basic and applied research in the field of the impact of human activities on the functioning of aquatic ecosystems and the services they provide. Its current main areas of work are: innovative technologies for water quality control in inland aquatic ecosystems (the INTCATCH H2020 project), ecological impact assessment (the LIFE DEMINE project), study and evaluation of the appearance of geosmin in the upper river Ter for the development of predictive models (an agreement with Aigües de Vic and Aigües d'Osona), participation in a European research network investigating episodes of unpleasant tastes and smell of drinking water (COST Action WATERTOP), citizen science in schools to study the role of river ecosystems in transporting plastic pollutants to the sea (the Pescadors de Plàstics project), and the use of natural microbial aquatic communities for wastewater treatment (the INNOQUA H2020 project).
The Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion
The Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion is a cooperative political project between the Government of Catalonia, the Government of the Balearic Islands and the French region of Occitanie. The project aims to create a sustainable development cluster in the north-western Mediterranean region, based on innovation and the social and economic integration, and to contribute to the construction of a united, solidarity-based Europe attuned to the concerns and experiences of its citizens.
Its challenges are to consolidate itself as a territory for projects on a European scale, to defend projects essential for balanced and sustainable development with one voice, to improve competitiveness by placing people at the core of its work, and to become a hub for innovation and growth by fostering links between the technological, scientific and cultural centres in its territory.
The Pyrenees-Mediterranean Euroregion has a roadmap for the period 2017-2020 which among other objectives, aims to act with and for the citizens of the territory; develop the Euroregional innovation ecosystem; contribute to the sustainable development of the territory and enhance the Euroregional identity.