Two out of every three Catalan municipalities are already at high or very high risk of flooding

BarcelonaNearly 70% of Catalan municipalities are now considered high or very high risk areas for flooding and are therefore required to have a flood preparedness and action plan in case of heavy rain. This is according to the updated Inuncat plan, approved by the Catalan government on Tuesday, which raises the number of municipalities at risk to 656 (164 more than before). The remaining 231 municipalities are considered moderate or low risk; however, Civil Protection recommends that they also have their action plans ready. After 20 years in effect, the Inuncat plan has been updated to adapt to the effects of climate change. The new document—work on since the pandemic—includes a thorough review of the calculation criteria and the way warnings are communicated to the public. According to government and Civil Protection sources, the new criteria are already in place "internally," but they clarify that the official change and the implementation of the new system throughout the territory will take place "during the month of April," once all computer systems have been adapted.

New measures and prediction calculations

The aim of this new update is to "improve prevention capacity" and the coordination of emergency teams in the face of torrential rains or storms, increasingly frequent and intense events, explained the Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, at a press conference. To this end, the new Inuncat plan includes two main innovations: a new categorization of municipalities at risk and a new calculation to predict rainfall intensity and prevent its potential impact on the ground. The new plan recommends or mandates flood prevention plans in all municipalities, regardless of whether they are at high or very high risk, or moderate or low risk. Civil Protection sources explained that more than half of Catalan municipalities already have an approved plan (i.e., one developed within the last four years). This is a significant increase compared to just a year ago, when only 30% of municipalities had such a protocol. However, Minister Paneque has said that, for the time being, no sanctions are foreseen if local councils fail to comply. "We trust in good understanding and institutional collaboration," the minister summarized.

The second major development is that professionals in this sector—that is, the Civil Protection teams, the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (Meteocat), the Ebro and Júcar river basin authorities, and the Catalan Water Agency (ACA)—have designed a new statistical calculation based on rainfall on the ground, or, in other words, the probability of flooding. This new risk threshold was developed thanks to the study of up to 54 historical episodes that occurred between 2012 and 2020 and caused serious damage in the region.

The updating of these protocols has also helped define the type of risk that may exist in each area based on the topography of each municipality. Thus, five categories have been established: river flooding (for more rural areas), torrential flooding (for mountainous areas), maritime flooding (for coastal municipalities), urban stormwater flooding, and flooding due to a potential dam failure. This classification allows for better adjustment of decisions and action protocols to each area.

The new Inuncat (Catalan Flood Risk Management Institute) also specifies and clearly outlines the preventive or emergency measures that can be adopted depending on the risk. It defines some very clear measures: from mobility restrictions, suspension of outdoor activities, or limitations on the use of certain services, to more forceful or serious measures such as mandatory confinement or evacuation.

Furthermore, in order to avoid any legal conflicts with individual freedoms, the new plan also provides for the creation of a new legal committee that will assess whether the measures are proportionate and in accordance with current legislation. This new body will report to the Ministry of the Interior and will review decisions to ensure their legal basis and the balance of rights. The technical and territorial coordination bodies have also been strengthened to better adapt actions to each area.

The ES-Alert will continue to sound loudly

All these new features will help in decision-making, which will be summarized and communicated to the public through the ES-Alert system, a mobile phone alert that includes a loud, strident tone and is sent simultaneously and en masse to all citizens with a device. This alarm will continue to be "a key tool" that will sound "loud" whenever Civil Protection wants to send a notification. The Government is working to include different tones and volumes for the alarm sound depending on the type of alert (whether it's a pre-alert, an alert, an emergency, or the end of a rain event, for example). This option with greater gradations is already available in some European countries that have been using the mobile phone alert system for longer, such as Belgium. In Catalonia, it is not yet available, and the reasons are varied. Civil Protection sources explain that, firstly, the State has not yet transposed the relevant European directive; On the other hand, Europe is waiting for mobile phone operators to include an update in iOS and Android systems so that pre-alerts will sound automatically and by default on phones. If all goes well, this variety of tones could be incorporated during the year. Meanwhile, Civil Protection confirms that the alerts will continue to sound loudly to warn the population of the risk.