Erosion, rising sea levels, coastal floods and infrastructure damage – these are among the threats facing coastal communities because of climate change. Data modelling allows authorities to take preventive action now. To inform this action, the MarRisk project in the Galicia-North Portugal Euroregion collected data and created a series of models that will strengthen resilience to a changing climate and ensure long-term growth.
Spain, Portugal help coastal communities build resilience to climate-change threats
- 17 June 2020
We have built an infrastructure that contains all the data sources in the Euroregion Galicia-North Portugal and the set of indicators. This infrastructure will remain active, providing information about future trends related to climate change. Moreover, the project has generated information about the fate of mussel aquaculture, coastal floods and the resilience of infrastructure, and we have made calculations about the economic costs of adaptation in North Portugal, taking into account different strategies such as defence, adaptation or relocation.
MarRisk supports smart and sustainable growth of coastal areas through analysing the risks associated with climate change and their potential evolution. Applications, services, analysis, monitoring and surveillance developed as part of the project will ensure a coordinated response across borders. The aim is to provide public administrations, companies and civil society with the tools they need to support decision-making.
The research team strengthened the infrastructure for data collection and proposed indicators using this data to evaluate the risks to communities and their economies. They also developed detailed scenarios to understand the evolution of climate change-related challenges and distributed the information to interested parties and the wider public.
Anticipating future risk
By strengthening the network of existing measures to develop indicators of climate-change risk, the MarRisk team was able to evaluate risks such as erosion, infrastructure damage and coastal flooding.
These risks already exist, but when making major long-term investments it is necessary to understand in detail how climate change will affect them. The intensity or duration of many of these risks are likely to be aggravated and spread geographically over time, project results show.
To anticipate future risks, the project generated detailed climate-change scenarios, modelling the effects on coastal waters using wave, temperature and salinity indicators. These informed a range of services through which the risks to communities are evaluated, identifying areas that may be affected.
Accessible to all
Creating a coastal risk surveillance system that offers general and specific services for marine communities is a pioneering approach. The project strategy of adaptation, awareness and generation of opportunities involves society as a whole.
To emphasise the importance of preparing for new realities arising from climate change, the project consortium is producing guidelines to inform local authorities about how they can ensure their communities remain sustainable. Codes of good practice will help to build resilience, and online platforms make this information accessible to anyone, not only those directly involved in the project.
A series of workshops were held for stakeholders who can benefit from the project. The results were disseminated on social networks and through traditional media. Researchers also reached out to local schools.
Videos
Un día en el trabajo del Observatorio Oceanográfico RAIA Red de estaciones meteorológicas dela margen Ibérica (Galicia – Portugal) Estación Océano-meteorológica de Rande (Ría de Vigo) Estación Océano-meteorológica de Islas Cíes (Ría de Vigo) Estación Océano-meteorológica de Cortegada (Ría de Arousa)Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “MarRisk” is EUR 2 957 049, with the EU’s European Regional Development Fund contributing EUR 2 217 787 through the “Interreg V A España Portugal (POCTEP)” Operational Programme for the 2014-2020 programming period. The investment falls under the priority “Sustainable growth”.