IHCantabria celebrates the inauguration of the project ‘Complementary studies for the integral solution to flooding in the Malecón de La Habana’
Inauguration ceremony. Seated: Raul Medina (general director of IHCantabria) and Juan Jose Diaz (project director, representing ESIHO). Behind, on the screen: Andre Cardoso (commercial director of the company R5 Marine Solutions) and Khaled S. Alfouzan (managing director of the Kuwaiti company Dar TAEP).
This project is of great relevance to the community of Havana, Cuba, and represents a milestone in the search for effective solutions to the challenges caused by flooding on Havana’s iconic Malecon.
The inauguration ceremony of the project “Complementary studies for the integral solution to flooding in the Havana Malecon” was held today at the Nilo Hall of the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of the University of Cantabria(IHCantabria). The implementation of this project is financed by the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development.
This event, which took place in hybrid mode, was chaired by the General Director of IHCantabria, Raul Medina, and by the head of the Ports and Coastal Infrastructures Group of this institution, Antonio Tomás Sampedro. In person, teaching and research staff from the University of Cantabria and IHCantabria attended, together with a group of Cuban professionals; while, virtually, representatives of The Associated Engineering Partnership (Dar TAEP) and other Cuban professionals participated.
The recently inaugurated project was awarded to IHCantabria and Dar TAEP (with whom R5 Marine Solutions also participates), and consists of carrying out tests, in 2D and 3D physical models, of the proposed solutions from the project “Studies for obtaining an integral solution for coastal flood protection of the so-called Malecón de La Habana” (Havana Seawall). In addition, this project includes the provision of short training courses and technical support to assist in design and decision making. For this reason, at today’s opening ceremony, the importance of this event to promote the protection of areas vulnerable to extreme weather phenomena was highlighted at the Malecon in Havana, Cuba.
One of the main objectives of this project is to strengthen the capacities of the research team of the local consultant in Cuba, comprised of the Empresa de Servicios Ingenieros Hidrálulicos de Occidente (ESIHO), which belongs to the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Hidráulicos (INRH), and the Hydraulic Research Center of the Technological University of Havana (CIH-CUJAE, by its acronym in Spanish). To achieve this objective, IHCantabria has designed a specific training program in the use and application of the most cutting-edge Coastal and Maritime Engineering technologies. This program started today (in a hybrid format) and will end after three weeks.
This training program includes the characterization of maritime climate, wave propagation, wave interaction with coastal infrastructures, and the composite (marine and hydrological) flooding of sheltered or protected urban areas. For this purpose, the physical processes that govern these aspects of engineering will be analyzed, as well as the tools with which they are solved and characterized.
The teaching team that will teach the first period training courses is made up of: Cesar Vidal Pascual, Gabriel Diaz Hernandez and Maria Maza Fernandez. Some seminars are also programmed, which will be given by Melisa Menendez, Javier L. Lara, Sheila Abad Herrero, Jose A. Juanes de la Peña, Maria Recio Espinosa, Ottavio Mattia Mazzaretto and Hector Lobeto Alonso. Antonio Tomas Sampedro and Beatriz Rodriguez Fernandez, together with the rest of the team participating in the project, will hold several joint work sessions for the detailed definition of the project.
The aim of this ambitious project and the training sessions is not only to address current problems, but also to train professionals interested in preserving the coastal environment and in adopting effective preventive measures to face the challenges caused by flooding in Havana’s emblematic Malecon.
The Institute of Environmental Hydraulics of the University of Cantabria (IHCantabria) is a joint research institute focused on the integrated management of socio-ecological systems associated with water. Founded in 2007, its mission is to promote scientific excellence and its transfer, to drive innovation that contributes to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the achievement of a just, inclusive, responsible and resilient society.
The Associated Engineering Partnership (Dar TAEP) is a registered professional office based in Kuwait. He is licensed to practice as general architectural consultants, engineers and urban planners. As part of its services, Consultores Generales also performs engineering design and consulting services and feasibility studies associated with infrastructure, industrial and public projects. R5 Marine Solutions collaborates with TAEP.
Front row, from left to right: Patricia Ruth de Horta Brito, Daniela Cordova De Horta and Luis Fermín Cordova Lopez, Cuban professionals who will receive training at IHCantabria.
Second row, from left to right: Beatriz Rodriguez and Antonio Tomas Sampedro, representatives of IHCantabria.
In the background: representatives of IHCantabria, ESIHO, R5 Marine Solutions and Dar TAEP presiding over the opening ceremony.
Moments of the inauguration ceremony of the project ‘Complementary studies for the integral solution to the floods in the Malecón of Havana’, in the Nilo Room of IHCantabria.
