• 01 May 14
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SPAIN

The research site in Spain is focused on flood impacts on urban activities and CSOs impacts on the receiving water bodies (bathing waters and natural streams). The site is Badalona city, which is part of the Barcelona metropolitan area, and the 3rd most populated city in Catalonia with 220.000 inhabitants.

The city faces two main drainage problems: urban flash floods caused by the catchment morphology (high slopes in the upper part and flat areas in the lower part) and Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) discharges during medium and heavy rain events to its 5 km of beaches causing an important impact on water quality and tourism. River and sewer flooding in September 1999 resulted in more than 125 million € claimed to insurances companies. These losses only included direct damage covered by insurance companies (and thus non-covered direct damages and indirect damage is not included).

Coastal flooding in August of 2000 also resulted in serious environmental, social and economic damage: 80 million € were claimed to insurance companies. CSOs have a significant impact in terms of economic and social losses.

According to a methodology employed by the European Commission (Directorate-General Regional Policy) for an audit report concerning interventions financed by the Cohesion Fund, the economic losses due to CSOs to receiving water bodies can be estimated at almost 1,700 million € per bathing season. These problems are expected to increase due to climate change.

BINGO Impact:

The work will focus on improving flood and CSO resilience in a context of climate change through an Advanced Urban Drainage Management. This will be based on integrated modelling of urban water cycle. 

BINGO Partners from Spain:

AQUATEC, Ajuntament de Badalona, Aigues de Barcelona, AMB. Meet the Partners here.

Videos:

AQUATEC INTERVIEW WITH RADIO BADALONA: 28/11/2016

 

Beniamino Russo and Montse Martinez from Aquatec were invited to attend an interview from Radio Badalona on behalf of Badalona City Council as participants of the BINGO project. The interview was framed in the radio program Badalona matí (Badalona morning show): http://www.radiob.cat/bdnmati

The main focus of the interview was related to BINGO project, the following questions were made by the radio announcer:

 

  • -  Objectives of the BINGO project
  • -  Which impacts are forecasted due to climate change in Badalona?
  • -  Will Badalona be prepared for these changes?
  • -  Which exact streets of Badalona will be flooded?

This question was made because the Flumen Institute at The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech (UPC) recently published a thesis from Eduardo Martínez (Beniamino Russo is one of its directors) where Badalona was used as a case-study to simulate the effects of flooding in some streets of the city, mainly regarding impacts on people and vehicles.

  • -  Which measures could be applied in Badalona to prevent the impacts due to climate change?
  • -  Will the impacts of climate change directly affect the quantity of rubbish present in Badalona beaches?
  • -  The fishermen complain that the origin of this rubbish is the Besòs WWTP, is it true?
  • -  Can this rubbish be accumulated in the seabed?
  • -  Which costs will these adaptation measures involve?
  • -  Why was Badalona chosen to participate in the BINGO project?
  • -  Is the Badalona harbor responsible for the accumulation of rubbish at the Badalona beaches? Will this be analysed within the project?
  • -  Is Badalona City Council aware of the results of the project?

 

Both Beniamino and Montse Martinez answered with all the details regarding the BINGO project: its objectives, the impacts and risks considered for Badalona case study (flooding and CSOs impacts on beaches), that the adaptation measures are currently being defined and that the costs related to them will be also analysed within the scope of the project. It was also remarked that the WWTP is not responsible for the rubbish accumulation in the seabed, that it mainly comes from CSOs during heavy storm events and that the harbor will be considered as a boundary condition in the marine model used in the project. Finally, it was also remarked that the Badalona city council is not just aware of the results of BINGO project but that they are also an active partner in it!