NOTICIAS
The Cuban Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment and IHCantabria update their scientific and technological cooperation agreement for 2023
A Cuban delegation made up of senior officials from the Environment Agency (AMA), and the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy (IGA) of Cuba has visited the Institute of Environmental Hydraulics of the Universidad de Cantabria (IHCantabria) to update the work program linked to the “Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement” signed in 2021.
Some of the areas of cooperation contemplated include the management of coastal ecosystems, the marine climate and climate change, research and the development of studies and technologies to face natural and anthropogenic risks linked to climate change, the development of plans and programs of integrated management of hydrographic basins and coastal zones, or hydrodynamics and coastal infrastructures, among others.
During their recent visit, the Cuban delegation and IHCantabria have identified as priorities for 2023 lines of work such as ecosystem modelling for predicting future scenarios, preparing joint projects and knowledge management through a training program. In addition, it has allowed the exchange of experiences on the planning process of adaptation to climate change considering the participation of government agencies and the lessons learned from successful projects in Spain.
Strengthening capacities in disaster risk reduction
Within the framework of the agreed work program for the implementation of the agreement and over a week of work, the UC professor and Torres Quevedo National Research Award 2022, Iñigo J. Losada, gave training in the management of the reduction of disaster risks (RRD) and adaptation to climate change (ACC) to a group of eight officials from the Environment Agency and the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy of Cuba.
This group, which works on the international project “Building coastal resilience in Cuba through natural solutions for adaptation to Climate Change”, better known as “Coastal Resilience”, has participated in interactive conferences as well as practical exercises and other teaching activities. . Among others, the objective was to learn how to validate physical and biodiversity parameters to monitor marine-coastal ecosystems such as beaches, seagrasses, mangroves and corals, as well as modelling the dynamics of future climate change scenarios.
“The training improves the skills of the scientific personnel based on the knowledge of cutting-edge techniques for modelling current and future scenarios,” explains Yohanis de la Torre, technical director of the Coastal Resilience project. This training will also allow them to deepen the modelling of the impact of coastal flooding caused by extreme hydrometeorological events and exchange ideas on the integrated vision of risks and adaptation to strengthen the resilience of settlements and coastal ecosystems.
This training corresponds to the priorities established in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, an international document approved by the United Nations Assembly in 2015 that sets priorities for disaster risk reduction
The Coastal Resilience project is funded by The Global Climate Change Alliance Plus Initiative, a flagship initiative of the European Union to help the countries most vulnerable to climate change. The objective of this project, which benefits almost 700,000 people, is to work with vulnerable coastal settlements affected by Hurricane Irma as it passed through Cuba in September 2017.