2023-10-04 17:00:04
He number of households exposed to possible flooding has increased dramatically in recent decades. According to a study published this Wednesday in the scientific journal ‘Nature’, between 1985 and 2015 the number of human settlements located in flood-prone areas grew by nearly 122%. This figure, experts warn, demonstrates the extent to which the humanity is already seriously threatened by the impact of phenomena such as the overflowing of a river or an extreme storm and how, in the future, the advance of the climate crisis could further increase all these risks.
The investigation, led by a team of experts from the World Bank itself, warns about how the urban expansion of the last thirty years It has been developed, above all, in areas with high risk of flooding. Records indicate that much of the homes and infrastructure have been built precisely in regions that could suffer catastrophic flooding. Experts warn that, in most cases, the homes most exposed to these dangers They are located in low and middle income countries.
The urban expansion of the last thirty years has focused on flood-prone territories
Among the countries most threatened by extreme floods are China, Japan and India. Europe, for its part, also appears on the list due to its high risk of suffering an extreme storm or a river overflowing. In this region, above all, the situation of countries such as France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. “In these regions, more has been built on flood-prone areas than on non-flood areas,” concludes the analysis published this Wednesday.
One million Spanish homes
In Spain it is estimated that there are more than a million homes They rise in risk areas. As pointed out an investigation led by ‘eldiario.es’he 4.3% of Spanish homes They are at medium risk of river or sea flooding. Most of these are located in areas of the Mediterranean. The analysis points to Murcia, Valladolid, Palma, Girona and Cartagena as the large cities with the highest proportion of homes built in flood-prone areas. “In relative terms, they stand out about twenty towns like La AlgabaIn sevilla; Deltebre, in Tarragona; or Santoña, in Cantabria; that have more than 70% of their streets in a floodable area,” concludes the investigation.
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In Catalonia, according to Civil Protection figures, 385 of the 947 municipalities are at high or very high risk of flooding. This means that at least 40% of Catalan towns and cities are seriously exposed to a natural disaster caused by torrential rains, increased waves or flooding of rivers and streams. The territories with the highest risk are concentrated on the northern coast, the Pyrenees and Montsià. In total, in Catalonia alone, it is estimated that there are 705,000 people living in potentially flood-prone areas.
You don’t have to go far to see the danger of a flood. Just a few weeks ago, the passage of an extreme disturbance caused severe flooding in Greece and Libya. Only in the African country is it estimated that this episode caused more than 11,470 deaths y 10,100 missing, as well as uncountable material and economic losses today. As warned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as the most exhaustive studies carried out to date, these types of extreme weather events could become increasingly frequent with the advancement of the climate crisis around the world.
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