Published on November 3, 2024 at 7:01 p.m. / Modified on November 4, 2024 at 10:12.
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Spain built its coastal cities in areas normally expected to absorb a significant influx of water, particularly from the surrounding mountains.
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Specialists recommend intervening upstream of cities and at the heart of them
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The figures speak for themselves: the countryside is much better equipped than urban areas to cope with torrential waters
Barely a week has passed since the biggest disaster of this half-century in Spain (its 217 deaths and dozens of missing) that we are already taking stock of the imperative changes to be introduced in terms of infrastructure and urban planning. And this, so that, during the next “DANA” – or cold drops, these isolated high-level depressions – the material and human consequences will be much less severe. The configuration of the most affected areas – essentially small towns in the suburbs of Valencia (Torrent, Picaña, Aldaia, Chiva, Paiporta, etc.) – clearly shows where the question lies: most of the deaths and destruction occurred place on the edge of ramblas. These typically Mediterranean river beds look like small dry ravines coming from the mountains, designed precisely to contain the fury of the floods in the event of a storm.
Generally speaking, with each inclemency of this kind, these ramblas save bridges, street furniture and homes. Unless, thanks to climate change, the virulence of the rains exceeds 200 to 300 liters per square meter. However, on Tuesday January 29, it fell in certain areas with up to 500 liters per square meter! Never seen before. In Madrid, the Ministry of Infrastructure has reported: this “cold drop” of biblical dimensions will force roads to be moved, industrial polygons to be rebuilt, bridges to be reinforced, and embankments to be built to protect the most exposed buildings. In Valencia and its surroundings, but also all along the Mediterranean coast, from Cap de Creus in Catalonia to Huelva in Andalusia, where the topographical, human and urban characteristics are similar.
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