Within the framework of the international project Risc Miño-Limia, for four years the Spanish and Portuguese partners have improved their management in the face of extreme phenomena
After four years of work, the Risc Miño-Limia cross-border project comes to an end, with its Spanish and Portuguese partners taking a very positive view of the results achieved. Under its auspices, among other initiatives, the Ephyslab Environmental Physics Laboratory (CIM-UVigo) research group has developed an early flood warning system for the Miño-Limia international basin.
The participating partners celebrated virtually the closing day of the initiative, which was born to improve management and responsiveness to the problems associated with extreme meteorological events, namely floods and droughts, and to mitigate its effects on the international watershed of the Miño and Limia rivers basins, taking into account the necessary adaptation to climate change. Funded by the Interreg VA Spain-Portugal Cross-Border Cooperation Program (Poctep), the project had a budget of 2.3 million euros (with a contribution of European funds of 75% of the total), it began in summer of 2017 and ends next December 31, after an extension due to the covid-19 situation. . The leader of the initiative is the Miño-Sil Hydrographic Confederation and its Portuguese counterpart ARH Norte, of the Portuguese Environment Agency; the School of Engineering of the University of Porto and the University of Vigo, whose participation is part of the specialization project of the Campus Agua in the Ourense campus.
At the end of the initiative, its partners agreed to show their satisfaction with the “high degree of implementation of the project at the technical and economic level”, which allowed, they said, to achieve the proposed objectives. Thus, from the leading entity of Risc Miño-Limia point out that given the high degree of coordination and cross-border cooperation achieved and the results obtained, it would be important to continue the project in a new joint application, remembering the importance of prevention, protection and preparedness in the face of extreme phenomena to prevent damage to people and their property.
UVigo participation
One of the main results of the project was the creation of the Miño Flood Alert System (Midas). “This is a system developed by Ephyslab that allows to know in advance the risk of flooding in the most populated and potentially at risk area of the Miño-Sil basin,” says Moncho Gómez Gesteira, member of the group and professor of Earth Physics at the University of Vigo. The system runs daily and is connected to a graphical interface that with a simple and visual language allows to estimate the risk of flooding, as well as the extent of the flooded area, from precipitation data (prediction models and / or rain gauges) and background flow of control stations.
UVigo’s participation in Risc Miño-Limia covered other lines of action. Thus, it collaborated, under the coordination of Professor Pedro Araújo in this case, in the elaboration of a more detailed cartography of the basin in collaboration with the Spanish National Geographic Institute. In addition, Ephyslab participated in the analysis of different drought indices for the studied basin, trying to analyze their correlation with the so-called atmospheric teleconnection patterns and with the different types of atmospheric circulation in the vicinity of the Iberian Peninsula. The group also analyzed the water resources for the future throughout the international demarcation based on the predictions of more than 30 climate models, with the aim of studying the impact of climate change on water resources in this area. “As a result of this work, it has been concluded that rainfall will be lower in the future, as well as more irregular, i.e. there will be more events of heavy rain and drought. Not only will it rain less, but in a different way “, comments Moncho Gómez Gesteira.
More project results
In addition to UVigo’s participation, its overall results were reported at the project’s review meeting. Among them, it was pointed out that it was implemented an extension of the number of control points of the hydrometry network of the demarcation, with eight new points for the Automatic Hydrological Information System of the Spanish part and two for the National Resource Information System Water of the Portuguese part, which provide level, flow and precipitation data. In the same sense, it was explained that the stations of the Network of the Automatic Water Quality System have been increased by five, for the reception, in real time, of temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, pH and ammonium data, which will allow detection of occasional episodes of contamination.
The Miño-Limia Risk project also carried out an analysis of the Miño-Limia basin by reviewing the demographic hydrographic network of the demarcation, as well as obtaining a new digital terrain model of the Portuguese part from a Lidar flight. Finally, in the closing session held this Thursday, the data of the special drought plan in the basin carried out were presented, in which the same indicators and status indices were used in the Portuguese and Spanish parts, distinguishing between prolonged drought and shortage, so that by means of the application of the same methodology it will be possible to anticipate as much as possible the mitigating measures in the face of extreme meteorological phenomena.
Source: DUVI.
