Torrential rains that swept across Catalonia on Monday flooded one of the runways and part of a terminal at El Prat airport, causing the cancellation of 153 flights and the diversion of 18 others. full effects. debate on the expansion of infrastructure, one of the flagship projects of Salvador Illa’s government.
The airport is located on a flood plain, the Llobregat delta. Given the impossibility of moving this macroinfrastructure to another area, the Barcelona aerodrome has sophisticated drainage and water use mechanisms, designed not only for rainy episodes, but also so that the runways do not do not suffer possible collapse when the land dries out in summer.
“The runway was flooded because El Prat airport is in a delta and it is difficult to avoid it,” explains the architect and head of the urban and metropolitan strategy department of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), Victor Ténez. This expert recalls that the metropolitan area of Barcelona is, after that of Naples, the one with the greatest slope and orography in Europe.
“The last stretches of rivers and deltas are flood zones par excellence. Episodes like that of Monday at the Airport will be repeated with a more extreme rainy regime,” explains Annelies Broekman, doctor in agronomy and member of the Water and Climate Change team at the Center for Research in Ecology and Forestry Applications (CREAF).
The expert emphasizes that the Airport is only one of the economic activities taking place in the region, where a small deltaic natural space and another agricultural space coexist with large infrastructures such as the Airport, the new Free Zone of Commerce from the Port of Barcelona (for the fact that the Llobregat had to be diverted) or several road junctions.
“Infrastructure has invaded a place where nature plays an essential role in recharging aquifers and as a natural plug for marine storms,” warns Broekman. Wet and deltaic areas, explains this expert, are natural sponges during episodes of torrential rain: the wet area can absorb much more water than dry land, and the fresh water and dunes prevent the salty sea from contaminating the ecosystems of the area.
Ténez believes that both because of the area of the Llobregat Delta where the airport is located and because of current technology, the possible expansion of the infrastructure “would not have a great impact” on drainage in case of heavy rain. On the contrary, the work would have a much greater impact on the recharge of the aquifers in the area, in the opinion of this expert.
“Waterproofing such a unique place means destroying a very valuable habitat and, even if it is technically possible to move it, socially it is complicated because it already has a relationship with the territory,” explains Ténez, who also calls for observe the consequences of a possible expansion of the water cycle process, which allows purification at lower cost.
For Broekman, it is necessary to look holistically at what airport expansion means for the natural system. Not only because of the impact on the protected area of La Ricarda or by the fact that the impact of torrential rains can be mitigated with devices to raise the water such as culverts and pumps, as is already the case in El Prat to increase the discharge of water towards the sea.
These systems, Broekman warns, “are part of the technical logic of the 19th century, not the 21st century.” When channeling water, the agronomist emphasizes, the only objective cannot be that an airport runway is not flooded, but rather it is necessary to take into account the rest of the functions of water in the aquifer. “The natural system works the opposite of that of an airport: it needs to accumulate and evacuate water to rebalance salinity and fish farming, not just evacuate it so that planes can take off and land,” he adds.
Ténez and Broekman agree that due to climate change, traditional Mediterranean climatic phenomena such as DANA or drought will repeat with more frequency and intensity. The expert points out that the Mediterranean Sea has never been close to 30 degrees for so long (the increase in sea temperature is one of the causes of torrential rains), and that one of the reasons is precisely that it does not receive enough fresh water. .
For now, the government has avoided explicitly including the airport in the announced general review of all activities (economic or residential) taking place in flood-prone areas. The spokesperson of the Executive and Minister of Territory, Sílvia Paneque, highlighted on Tuesday the pumping mechanisms that prevent flooding in periods of rain, and placed emphasis on self-protection measures against torrential rains like those occurred this week.
Parties opposed to the expansion cited torrential rain during Wednesday’s plenary session as an additional reason to reject the work. “It is incompatible to wave the flag of the fight against climate change and want to expand the airport,” said ERC spokesperson Marta Vilalta.
Illa’s other investiture partner, the Comuns, joined the criticism. “When it rains, the third runway does not extend to Ricarda, but Ricarda is the one that extends to the airport,” said Jéssica Albiach. CUP spokesperson Laia Estrada called for this work to be “abandoned,” saying it makes “no sense in the context of the climate emergency.” In short, the torrential rains join the impact on La Ricarda, tourism or the country’s model as elements of the debate on the expansion of El Prat.
