Climate change impact assessment
We prepare climate change impact assessment studies on various areas to assist in strategic decision making.
About the project
The ECCLIPSE project (Evaluation of Climate Change in Ports of Southwest Europe) focuses on the analysis of the impact of climate change in the ports of Valencia (Spain), Aveiro (Portugal) and Bordeaux (France), developing prevention strategies and actions to mitigate its effects.
Problem
Ports are key elements of the international transportation system. Given its location, both its infrastructure and operations are affected by the maritime climate and by the impacts that climate change may produce, such as new wave conditions, sea level rises, floods, storms, heat waves, etc.
In this context, the ports of the SUDOE area (Southwest Europe) face major challenges in adapting to the effects of climate change in the region in which they are located. Therefore, in order to ensure port operations in these changing conditions, a deeper understanding of the impacts of climate change at the local scale is needed to design appropriate adaptation strategies, as opposed to current models that, due to their global nature and wide time range, are not effective in decision making.
The project
The ECCLIPSE project focuses on analyzing the impact of climate change, developing early prediction tools and models that allow a deep understanding of the impacts of climate change at the local scale. It will also contribute to raising awareness of the impact of climate change and will define transnational strategies for prevention, adaptation and action in the SUDOE area that can minimize its effects.
The project aims to define a common methodology for analyzing the impacts of climate change and its effects on the maritime-port environment. To this end, the main climate risks will be analyzed and the infrastructures and operations that may be affected by these impacts will be identified. Climate change scenarios and their local scale effects on the port environment will be identified. The last step is to draw up a strategy for adaptation to the effects of climate change, including a risk prevention plan and proposed measures and protocols for action in the event of warnings.
Results
Our colleague, Emma Gaitán Fernández, explains in the video above some of the measures carried out and some of the results already obtained in ECCLIPSE. For example, conclusions such as that sea level rise may reach up to 82cm in the Port of Valencia by the end of the century. This, together with the increase in seawater temperature, will cause storms to become much more violent. It is estimated that a rise of up to one meter in the water level can cause the total energy developed during a storm to increase up to three times. With this climatic framework, it is necessary that the port docks be prepared for much more powerful storms. Port infrastructures and activities will also have to prepare for extreme temperatures up to 4.5C higher in summer and more intense heavy rainfall events.
Funded by
Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge through grants to third-sector entities or non-governmental organizations that carry out activities of general interest considered to be of social interest in the field of scientific and technical research and environmental protection under state jurisdiction. This research has been funded by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge but does not express its opinion.
