Valencia: What happened?

Science is far from being a perfect instrument of knowledge. It’s simply the best we have"

Carl Sagan, “The World and Its Demons”

The response of the administrations to the DANA crisis, in particular that of the Generalitat Valenciana, deserves attention that goes beyond the proposal of this writing. Let us listen, among others, to those who are committed to overcoming so-called governance imbalances, because it is absolutely essential that a new disaster does not catch us arguing again about who and how they should be in charge of the ship, even if the legal provisions The framework appears sufficiently clear.

Let us thank the people, volunteers, support services and collaboration who, despite organizational problems, help to alleviate pain and precariousness.

Now I think it’s also interesting to know what happened in the physical environment. What was the specificity of the rains, what part of the territory received them and how and by what routes the waters passed until reaching where they caused so much human and material destruction. What obstacles, if any, made the situation worse?

Every year, when October arrived, in Valencia we wondered how the plan known as Plan Sur would react in the event of rains similar to or greater than those of the Turia flood of 1957. In my opinion, the most logical solution the answers were along the lines of “we don’t know”. Well, the profound transformations brought about in recent decades – agrarian, urban growth, public works – have made it doubtful that the waters would submit obediently to transit through where this great drainage canal was located, a project that would be impossible to propose within the current legal framework. and this has now regained particular importance. Sterile conflicts of the “if we had…” style no longer contribute much.

This project, as well as other subsequent decisions, have conditioned the growth of the metropolitan area over the years, relegating the southern area to a clearly subordinate role which today, with DANA, once again pays a very high price. It will take time to clarify what role the river diversion ultimately played in this crisis.

1957-2024. Changes in environmental culture 

Since then, there has been a profound shift in environmental culture led by the scientific world. The publication in 1972 of the famous report “The Limits to Growth” helped lay the foundations of a new environmental scenario, now presided over by the fight against climate change. Later, we saw the formulation of the New Water Culture: considering rivers as natural ecosystems to be protected, as stipulated in the European Framework Directive of 2000. The later directive of 2007 refers to the assessment and flood risk management. We then remembered that between 1998 and 2004, Europe had suffered more than a hundred serious floods with thousands of displaced people and a high economic cost in losses. The Vallés floods in September 1962 (Llobregat and Besós rivers) caused between 600 and 1,000 victims and losses of several million dollars.

There is another difference between 1957 and 2024. Then, with almost no vehicles, we calculated the width of the avenues by the height reached in our houses. Today, it is cars that overwhelmingly establish “the measure of all things”, in addition to being an additional obstacle in these catastrophes.

Against the social and political current which denies these innovations, those responsible for democratic governments are obliged to integrate them into public policies, since legislation has assumed a large part of these changes. “As politicians know that climate change puts absolutely everything at risk, doing nothing amounts to a crime. The world has limits, but they play at unlimited growth…” This is how the naturalist Joaquín Araujo expressed it bluntly in 2019 in the newspaper The avant-garde.

Let’s return to our territory. To know how the physical environment reacted to the waterspout, we need rigorous studies that help us dispel doubts, knowing, as we have seen, that the technical and scientific knowledge available is no longer the same, nor the biophysical framework. , nor the normative one. For this task, the collaboration of various specialties is necessary. In addition, we have instruments such as green infrastructure to address the climate crisis and hydrological regulation, stopping soil erosion: an interconnected system of natural elements, very different from gray infrastructure concrete.

With all this, researchers and specialists will be able to monitor what happened and provide new guidelines for action from now on. Territorial management systems can be updated, prioritizing prevention and alerting citizens to a new threat. Here too we missed a substantial improvement in logistical tasks.

In short, think and put the necessary resources into adapting to the changes that have already begun to manifest themselves in alarming ways due to climate responses. We are late, because the aforementioned advances have barely been reflected in the public policies of our country, engaged in projects of the past that divert public resources, now essential, for the reconstruction that awaits us. The myth of growth, thus established, is very difficult to combat.

Hopefully our public universities and research centers will contribute their knowledge to provide reliable answers to the question that drives this text. We will be attentive.