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The European project 'MEDIFLOOD', which coordinates the Department of Physics of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia · BarcelonaTech (UPC), has created the first file that collects, identifies and analyzes 14,500 cases of rainfall and river flooding in the Spanish Mediterranean basin in a period of almost a millennium.
The information provided by this catalog will increase the forecasting capacity of extreme weather events to design the most effective adaptation and response actions.
The latest episodes of torrential rains in the Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia are common at this time of year, as historical records show.
The projections of climate models for a future marked by global warming indicate a growing rainfall irregularity, with more droughts, but, at the same time, an increase in torrential rains.
Analyzing the impact and complications that the increase in rainfall can cause is key to a good public intervention and mitigate its effects.
Therefore, it is necessary to have mechanisms for the collection, management and analysis of extreme meteorological events on a historical scale, which allow reducing uncertainties and adequately planning adaptation and response actions.
This is the objective of the European research project 'MEDIFLOOD', coordinated by researcher David Pino, linked to the Department of Physics of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia · BarcelonaTech (UPC), and jointly developed with multidisciplinary teams of the University of Murcia, University from Barcelona, ​​the University of Lleida, the University of Alicante and the Meteorological Service of Catalonia.
The unified cataloging and classification system of the 'MEDIFLOOD' project has managed to define 14,500 cases of rain and river flooding, which cover continuously from November 3, 1035 until July 31, 2019. This information has allowed to identify, until the moment, 3,980 flood episodes.
The supporting material with all the details and references constitutes a 7,600-page thesaurus, recently disseminated to the scientific community through the Global and Planetary Change magazine.
The data collected comes not only from the materials available in the National Catalog of Historical Floods (CNIH), of the Ministry of Interior, but also from databases and reports of the different river basin authorities, as well as historiographic search and research work. compilation in documentary and bibliographic sources still unexplored in a high percentage.
Data analysis
The database created shows that the Mediterranean side of the Iberian Peninsula has suffered floods of varying intensity, some much more extreme than those recorded instrumentally.
The behavior of the climate has generated more or less favorable moments for torrential rains, both in warm and cold phases.
The rains that have produced recent floods in the Valencian Community, Murcia and Andalusia have been high (with maximums of more than 300 mm in 24 hours), but they are far from the maximum recorded in 24 hours in Oliva (Valencia) on 03/11 / 1987 of 817 mm (official maximum registered in Spain).
As for the maximum intensities that have been measured in the current episode, about 150 mm / h, exceed 129.9 mm / h officially measured in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on March 31, 2012. With these extreme rainfall intensities, the answer Hydrological is very sudden, in one or two hours, as well as voluminous, so that extremely dangerous lightning floods are generated, called flash-floods.
Despite being severe, these floods are of the same magnitude or smaller than some episodes recorded in November 1617 on almost the entire Mediterranean slope, in October 1787 in the Ebro basin or in May 1853, in the Cinca rivers , Segre and the lower course of the Ebro.
To face the future challenges posed by this reality, it is as important to study climate processes as the effects of human action on the territory.
In this sense, the project has analyzed the adaptation of the population to this climatology with often adverse manifestations.
According to the investigation, the main change occurs in the way in which the territory has been occupied and in the consequent impact, some transformations that over the last decades have negatively influenced the behavior of river systems.
It has been detected, for example, a substantial increase in rainfall, or on-site flooding, often linked to drainage problems, and causing damage and damage in areas that had not been previously flooded.
As the main researcher of the project, David Pino, points out, "the catalog will allow the evaluation of the effects of human activities (urban growth, occupation of river channels, impact of public works, for example), in case of rain and river floods of different types ".
This will allow the development of proposals for better climate risk management, making progress in reducing exposure and risk vulnerability.
Source: Communication Service of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia
Source: Universidad de Murcia
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