Garachico teaches the world to defend itself from the blows of the sea

Between January and this month of February, the research teams have placed and calibrated a current meter on the seabed off the coast of Garachico, which makes it possible to obtain data on currents, tides and waves, as well as a set of cameras in the coastline to prevent possible flooding. The data collected during the field campaign that has just started and the images from the cameras will be used to adjust the early warning system, a highly accurate method that will allow anticipating sea floods.

The current meter was anchored on January 7 at a depth of 40 meters off the volcanic coast of Garachico by the company Elittoral, one of the many partners in the project. Laura Comes Aguilar, technical coordinator of the Life Garachico project on behalf of the Tragsa group, details it. Comes adds that this oceanographic measurement instrument will allow the 11 private partners of the team to obtain data on the speeds and directions of the currents and waves that are generated along the coast of the Tenerife municipality. The objective is to record the information of some of the biggest storms that occur during this winter.

On February 3, the three ultra-sensitive cameras to complete the wave information on Adolfo Suárez avenue in Garachiquense, town of 4,800 inhabitants. The resulting methodology will then be applied in another municipality in the north of Tenerife also exposed to the waves, Puerto de la Cruz (30,400 inhabitants), as well as Praia da Vitória, a Portuguese town on Isla Terceira, in the Autonomous Region of Azores (6,200 inhabitants). The cameras work with artificial intelligence techniques and will not only allow the determination of flood phenomena and their characteristics, but also these images will be related to the current meter data.

Laura Comes emphasizes that when the investigation is finished and the prevention system is obtained, «its methodology can be applied not only to the islands of Macaronesia, but also to any region of Europe and the world sensitive to coastal flooding». “Hence the importance of all the work that is being carried out in Garachico, the chosen municipality on the European continent to develop this project”, emphasizes the coordinator. The forecast is that both the current meter and the cameras record data until April.

Importance

The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Climate Change of the Government of the Canary Islands directs this project. Its vice-counselor, Miguel Ángel Pérez, highlights the importance of this alert system for municipalities such as Garachico, which throughout history has suffered permanent damage to its historic quarter due to heavy seas, especially swells, as well called swell, caused by the movement of the waves when the wind blows strongly on the coast. “The goal is that the population is warned and measures are adopted to minimize the impact of the waves and avoid the serious consequences that have occurred throughout history on the Garachiquense coast and other points in Macaronesia”, Pérez points out.

In parallel to the collection of data from the instrumentation deployed in Garachico, the IH Cantabria, a research center set up by the University of Cantabria and the Fundación Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental of this Spanish community, continues laboratory tests in its wave channel . These tests make it possible to reproduce the Garachico coastline on a 1/25 scale in relation to different storm conditions. During the next months, the partners of IH Cantabria, within the framework of the Life Garachico project, will also analyze the behavior of the anti-impact banks, proposed protection elements against different storm conditions taking into account the bathymetry (study of the depths marinas) of the Garachiquense coast.

The program is progressing at a good pace. It is a pioneer when it comes to including citizen participation in the process. Hence, on November 10, the technicians took a tour of Adolfo Suárez avenue together with the neighbors who wanted to join. That same day, the 1st Neighborhood Meeting of the Life Garachico Project was held to publicize the actions that are being carried out and answer and clarify any doubts. They also listened to their needs, concerns, and experiences related to flooding in the area. Since February of last year, neighbors and businessmen began to be asked to find out their perception of the sea of ​​leva. To date, 71 interview sheets, 9 individual interviews and 437 surveys have been completed.

Islands like Tenerife have a great tourist pressure in the coastal area and are highly exposed to storms from the Atlantic, which makes them very vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to the rise in sea level and the increase in the frequency and intensity of strong waves, which increase the risk of coastal flooding. In the last decade, It is estimated that the socioeconomic losses caused by the effects of coastal flooding amount to 250 million euros in Macaronesia alone. That’s where Life Garachico comes from.

Example for coastal municipalities

The project, as reported on its website, proposes the development of methodologies for the creation of a Flexible Adaptation Strategic Framework for the coastal municipalities of Macaronesia, based on the evaluation of risk levels and specific interventions at the local level, with in order to increase the resistance of these areas against extreme, current and future coastal events, aggravated by global warming. The Garachiquenses know very well what this threat means. Although the episodes are frequent, the most damaging of those that are remembered occurred between November 17 and 18, 2018. The sea hit the town and destroyed everything in its path, such as windows, premises and homes. A total of 39 people had to be evacuated as a precaution.