Outstanding participation of IHCantabria in CONAMA 2024 with its expertise in projects that promote coastal adaptation to climate change

The National Environmental Congress (CONAMA 2024), which has become the main forum for dialogue and action against climate change in a sustainable manner in Spain, was held in Madrid from December 2 to 5. Researchers from the Environmental Hydraulics Institute of the Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria) participated in this event.

This congress brought together more than 6,000 participants at the IFEMA North Convention Center in Madrid and offered more than 100 activities focused on various current environmental challenges. One of these activities was the Technical Session No. 4, focused on the theme “Adaptation of the coast to climate change”, which took place on Tuesday, December 3, from 16:00 to 19:00, in the Albufera Room of IFEMA.

This technical session was part of the more than 15 CONAMA 2024 activities dedicated to climate change, which was the central theme of this edition. It allowed addressing the challenges of climate change in coastal areas, such as erosion, sea level rise and the intensification of storm surges, with a focus on the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS).

This technical session included a round table discussion entitled“. Where are we headed? Challenges we face in adapting to climate change on the coast”. Javier López Lara, head of the Climate Risk, Adaptation and Resilience Group of IHCantabria, took part in the debate. In this debate also participated representatives of LIFE AdaptCalaMillor and LIFE Garachico, projects in which IHCantabria is actively involved as a beneficiary partner in a multidisciplinary group. These two projects were presented before the debate, in the section called “Projects and actions representative of adaptation to climate change on the coast”, in which five initiatives were highlighted. Miriam García, director of LANDLAB and researcher attached to IHCantabria, also participated during the Technical Session Nº 4, as well as María Fuentes, researcher at IHCantabria.

2nd Workshop of the LIFE AdaptCalaMillor project

CONAMA 2024 provided the opportunity to bring together representatives of various partners and stakeholders in the LIFE AdaptCalaMillor project. For this reason, to take advantage of their presence at this congress, the Directorate General of Circular Economy, Energy Transition and Climate Change of the Government of the Balearic Islands and the Coastal Observation and Forecasting System of the Balearic Islands ( ICTS SOCIB) organized in a hall of IFEMA, in Madrid, the 8th Steering Committee meeting of the LIFE AdaptCalaMillor project ─ on December 3, from 12:00 to 14:00─ and on. second workshop of this project, the which was entitled How will Cala Millor’s urban beach be affected by climate change? and which took place on December 4, from 09:30 to 14:00, in mixed modality (face-to-face and virtual).

IHCantabria was represented at this second workshop by Mauricio González Rodríguez, head of the Coastal Engineering and Management Group, and Verónica Cánovas Losada, researcher of the same group. The objective of the workshop was to inform public administrations and stakeholders about the impact that climate change will have on the natural, socioeconomic and urban systems of Cala Millor; in addition to fostering cross-sectoral collaboration to explore the use of SbN, in order to strengthen the resilience of urban beaches. This workshop, which focused on Cala Millor, is an example of the application of the methodology presented in the first workshop entitled How to assess the hazard, vulnerability and risk of climate change on urban beaches, which took place on September 6th in Mallorca.

The LIFE AdaptCalaMillor project ─presented at CONAMA 2024 as a representative initiative of adaptation to climate change on the coast─ combines science, citizen participation and governance to design a sustainable and adaptive model in insular and coastal contexts, in order to strengthen resilience in Cala Millor and other coastal areas. This project is funded by the LIFE program of the European Commission, coordinated by the Govern de les Illes Balears and with the participation of IHCantabria, in addition to the following entities: LANDLAB, landscape laboratory SLP; Coastal Observation and Prediction System of the Balearic Islands (ICTS SOCIB); Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB); University of the Balearic Islands; Conama Foundation; Consorci de Turisme de Son Servera i Sant Llorenç des Cardassar; Hotel Association of the Badia de Cala Millor and University of Cantabria.

With its participation in CONAMA 2024, IHCantabria has reaffirmed its commitment to research and implementation of effective measures for adaptation to climate change in coastal environments.