• The Regional Minister of Infrastructure and Mobility, Ethel Vázquez, and the president of the Board of Trustees of the University of A Coruña Foundation, José María Barja, signed the collaboration today in the presence of the rector, Julio Abalde.
• New methods will be deployed to be applied as a pilot project in the Verdugo river basin and the Vigo and Baiona estuaries, in the Galicia-Costa demarcation of regional competence.
• The agreement has a budget of 170,000 euros, of which 135,000 will be provided by the Xunta through Augas de Galicia, and will be in force until 31 May 2023.
• It will study the criteria of the different countries in the evaluation of the effect of floods to generate maps of flood zones and will study the inclusion in the risk maps of the effect of climate change on extreme precipitation.
• It will contribute to developing the early warning system for floods, known as Merlin, which the Xunta is already implementing in all areas with significant potential flood risk in Galicia.
• The Regional Minister places this work within the framework of the Innovaugas 4.0 programme, a project promoted by the Xunta and endowed with an investment of 7M€, which has just been awarded the prize for the best public initiative in the water sector at the 'Water Europe Innovation' awards.

The Regional Minister for Infrastructure and Mobility, Ethel Vázquez, today signed an agreement with the President of the Board of Trustees of the University of A Coruña Foundation, José María Barja, to develop new methodologies for predicting flood risk and the effects of climate change.

In a ceremony held at the rectorate of the University of A Coruña, in which the rector, Julio Abalde, also took part, the Regional Minister explained that this collaboration will enable us to combine our efforts and knowledge to deploy new methods that will be applied as a pilot project in towns in the Galicia-Costa hydrographic demarcation, the basin for which the Xunta is responsible, and more specifically, in the Verdugo river basin and the Vigo and Baiona estuaries.

The agreement involves an investment of 170,000 euros, of which 135,000 are provided by the Xunta through Augas de Galicia. This initiative has the backing of the European Union, through the ERDF 2014-2020 funds, as part of the objective of promoting research, technological development and innovation. 

Vázquez Mourelle highlighted the dual objective of this agreement, which will remain in force until 31 May 2023, to face the challenges of climate change, the effects of which are becoming increasingly evident, making it necessary to anticipate and be prepared to mitigate the possible consequences, he remarked.

He specified that the agreement will make it possible, on the one hand, to analyse the methodologies used in the different countries to assess the effect of rainfall flooding and generate maps of flood-prone areas; and, on the other, to consider in these flood risk maps the effect of climate change on the extreme precipitation to be taken into account in flood risk calculations.

To this end, according to Ethel Vázquez, the parties will form a multidisciplinary working team in which Augas de Galicia technicians will bring their experience in the prediction of flooding episodes and also in the development of the European Flood Directive. Meanwhile, technicians from the University of A Coruña will propose new lines of work to respond to new needs.

As the Regional Minister pointed out, on the basis of the work carried out by the technicians, the different procedures will be applied to areas with a significant potential risk of pluvial flooding, or to flood zones of pluvial origin in the basin of the river Verdugo, the Vigo and Baiona estuaries.

From there, he said, the areas at risk of pluvial flooding will be included in the Merlín forecasting system, the Augas de Galicia flood early warning system, which incorporates real-time information from the meteorological agencies Meteogalicia and AEMET, and the associated danger maps will be defined, following the guidelines of the European Floods Directive, incorporating the effects of climate change. 

In this way, she said, the agreement will contribute to the development of the flood early warning system, known as Merlin, which the Xunta is already implementing in all areas with significant potential flood risk in Galicia.

Ethel Vázquez pointed out that this work is part of the Innovaugas 4.0 programme, specifically the challenge that seeks to increase resilience to the effects of climate change. Innovaugas 4.0 is an initiative promoted by the Xunta to seek new solutions for integrated water management, optimise water resources and provide a long-term response to the demands of the different uses of water, and also to anticipate and be better prepared for the challenges of climate change.

The Regional Minister expressed the satisfaction of the Xunta, and especially Augas de Galicia, because the *innovaugas 4.0 initiative, endowed with 7M€ of investment and selected by the Ministry of Science in the Line of Promotion of Innovation from the Demand and Public Procurement, has just been awarded as the best public initiative in the water sector in the 'Water Europe Innovation' awards. The awards are promoted by the Water Europe platform, created by the European Commission and which brings together 250 members from 28 countries representing the entire water value chain.

The award, as Ethel Vázquez highlighted, is a recognition of the work being promoted by the Galician Government in order to optimise the prediction models of areas prone to flooding and, in this way, to have foreseen a contingency plan that avoids or reduces its consequences.

In this sense, he concluded by expressing his conviction that the results of the work that will be developed under the agreement signed today between the Foundation of the University of A Coruña and the Xunta will also be a source of pride and fruitful to face with more guarantees of success the risk of flooding and the effects of climate change.

Innovaugas 4.0

It should be remembered that Innovaugas 4.0 is a project promoted by the Galician Government, through Augas de Galicia, with the aim of achieving innovative solutions for advanced integrated water management and responding to the demands of the different uses, in balance with the natural environment and river ecosystems, taking into account the scenario of climate change.

The Innovaugas 4.0 project has an eligible budget of 7 million euros and is 80% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Spanish Multi-regional Operational Programme (POPE) 2014-2020.

Innovaugas 4.0 was selected by the Ministry of Science and Innovation in 2020 in the Line of Promotion of Innovation from Demand and Innovative Public Procurement, with a grant of €4.2 million from European funds. It is also co-financed by the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN), which is contributing €700,000, and by Augas de Galicia, which is contributing €2.1 million.