Assessment of Urban Flood Resilience in Barcelona for Current and Future Scenarios. The RESCCUE Project

Beniamino Russo, Marc Velasco, Luca Locatelli, David Sunyer, Daniel Yubero, Robert Monjo, Eduardo Martínez-Gomariz, Edwar Forero-Ortiz, Daniel Sánchez-Muñoz, Barry Evans and Andoni Gonzalez Gómez
Additional contact information
Beniamino Russo: AQUATEC (SUEZ Advanced Solutions), Paseo de la Zona Franca, 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Marc Velasco: AQUATEC (SUEZ Advanced Solutions), Paseo de la Zona Franca, 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Luca Locatelli: AQUATEC (SUEZ Advanced Solutions), Paseo de la Zona Franca, 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
David Sunyer: AQUATEC (SUEZ Advanced Solutions), Paseo de la Zona Franca, 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Daniel Yubero: AQUATEC (SUEZ Advanced Solutions), Paseo de la Zona Franca, 46-48, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
Robert Monjo: Fundación de Investigación del Clima (FIC) (Climate Research Fundation), Calle Gran Vía, 22, 28019 Madrid, Spain
Eduardo Martínez-Gomariz: Flumen Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Jordi Girona 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Edwar Forero-Ortiz: Cetaqua, Water Technology Centre, Carretera d’Esplugues, 75, 08940 Barcelona, Spain
Daniel Sánchez-Muñoz: IREC, Power Systems department, Jardins de les Dones de Negre, 1, 2ª pl., 08930 Barcelona, Spain
Barry Evans: Centre for Water Systems, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QF, UK
Andoni Gonzalez Gómez: Ajuntament de Barcelona (Barcelona Municipality), Carrer de Torrent de l’Olla 218, 08012 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 14, 1-25

Abstract: The results of recent climate projections for the city of Barcelona show a relevant increment of the maximum rainfall intensities for the period 2071–2100. Considering the city as a system of systems, urban resilience is strictly linked to the proper functioning of urban services and the knowledge of the cascading effects that may occur in the case of the failure of one or more critical infrastructures of a particular strategic sector. In this context, the aim of this paper is to assess urban resilience through the analysis of the behavior of the main urban services in case of pluvial floods for current and future rainfall conditions due to climate change. A comprehensive flood risk assessment including direct, indirect, tangible and intangible impacts has been performed using cutting edge sectorial and integrated models to analyze the resilience of different urban services (urban drainage, traffic, electric and waste sectors) and their cascade effects. In addition, the paper shows how the information generated by these models can be employed to feed a more holistic analysis to provide a general overview of the city’s resilience in the case of extreme rainfall events. According to the obtained results, Barcelona could suffer a significant increase of socio-economic impacts due to climate change if adaptation measures are not adopted. In several cases, these impacts have been geographically distributed showing the specific situation of each district of the city for current and future scenarios. This information is essential for the justification and prioritization of the implementation of adaptation measures.

Keywords: urban resilience; cascading effects; climate change; pluvial floods; 1D/2D coupled models (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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