It’s time to think about rebuilding. It is time to rebuild, as quickly as possible, the areas most affected by DANA. The areas most affected by flooding in Valencia. Yes, it’s time to do it, but this cannot be done in any way. Green spaces, permeable sidewalks… and the example of the city of Rotterdam.
Because it is clearly an adaptation to climate change. Your system the marine barriers, its dunes, its river dams… It is practically an impregnable city against floods.
“There is a whole Dutch engineering sector that is pioneering in these areas. Instead of draining the water, it must be retained. » » declares Annelies Broekman, researcher at CREAF on water and global change.
In Spain there are also examples of adaptation. For example, flood-prone parks with wetlands of the Zaragoza Water Town, or the large roofs that absorb rainwater in the Granada metro. And also the draining sidewalks of the streets of Seville.
“They incorporate a mechanism that allows water permeation. My recommendation is that these solutions are complementary to give back as much space as possible to the river and nature,” says Broekamn.
The risk of so-called “disaster capitalism”
A resilient reconstruction… but also fair. Also prioritize the most vulnerable to avoid those opportunists who take advantage of these disastersas was the case with Hurricane Katrina or the tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia. This is called disaster capitalism, something that we want to avoid thanks to certain measures already announced by the government.
“In the case of Sri Lanka and Thailand, we saw that the areas occupied by workers, by fishermen, were been transformed into luxury tourist areas”, explains Isabelle Anguelovski, professor at ICREA-UAB.
