ACCIONA CONSTRUCCIÓN Y CEDEX PARTICIPAN EN EL PROYECTO SOBRE INFRAESTRUCTURAS Y CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO CLARITY

El Centro de I+D de ACCIONA Construcción y el Centro de Estudios del Transporte del CEDEX participan junto con AEMET, METEOGRID Y ATOS y otras 12 empresas de mediano y gran tamaño y organismos de investigación de Alemania, Austria, Italia y Suecia en el proyecto de investigación CLARITY (Integrated Climate Adaptation Service Tools for Improving Resilience Measure Efficiency), iniciado en junio de 2017 y con una duración prevista de 36 meses. El proyecto está financiado por la Unión Europea bajo el programa Horizonte 2020, en el área de acción climática, medio ambiente, eficiencia de recursos y materias primas (Programa de Trabajo SC5).

El proyecto CLARITY tiene como objetivo proporcionar un ecosistema operativo de servicios climáticos basados en la nube para calcular y presentar los efectos esperados y amplificados por el cambio climático a nivel de riesgo, vulnerabilidad e impacto. En este sentido, el proyecto CLARITY pretende ofrecer servicios de apoyo a la toma de decisiones (por medio de comparación de estrategias alternativas) para investigar los efectos de las medidas de adaptación, así como las opciones de reducción de riesgos en el contexto específico del proyecto.

CLARITY proporcionará los medios prácticos para incluir los efectos del cambio climático y la posible adaptación y estrategias de gestión de riesgos en la planificación e implementación de proyectos relacionados con infraestructuras de transporte, aumentando de esta forma la resiliencia de las infraestructuras. Los responsables de la toma de decisiones involucrados en estos proyectos dispondrán de los medios adecuados para llevar a cabo pruebas climáticas y una planificación flexible de las opciones de adopción y reducción de riesgos.

La participación de las empresas y organismos de investigación españoles se centra en el desarrollo de los servicios climáticos y, de forma específica, en su aplicación al caso de estudio de la concesión de ACCIONA en la autovía A2, entre las localidades de Guadalajara y Alcolea del Pinar. En el proyecto se están llevando a cabo otros tres casos de estudios referidos a las necesidades de adaptación en entornos urbanos con distintas necesidades, como son las ciudades de Nápoles, Estocolmo y Linz.

Toda la información del proyecto se puede consultar en su página web: http://www.clarity-h2020.eu. En los próximos meses se organizarán workshops divulgativos específicos para comunicar los resultados y avances alcanzados por el consorcio CLARITY.

PROJECT: CLARITY (INTEGRATED CLIMATE ADAPTATION SERVICE TOOLS FOR IMPROVING RESILIENCE MEASURE EFFICIENCY)

Logotipo del proyecto internacional de investigación CLARITY.

Duration: from 1st June 2017 to 31st May 2020 This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730355 Work Programme: Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials Topic: Exploiting the added value of climate services Topic Identifier: SC5-01-2016-2017

CLARITY project consortium is formed by 17 partners from Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden. Project coordinator is AIT from Austria.

Urban areas and traffic infrastructure linking such areas are highly vulnerable to climate change. Smart use of existing climate intelligence can increase urban resilience and generate added value for businesses and society at large.

Based on the results of FP7 climate change, future internet and crisis preparedness projects (SUDPLAN, ENVIROFI, CRISMA) with an average TRL of 4-5 and following an agile and user-centred design process, end-users, purveyors and providers of climate intelligence will co-create an integrated Climate Services Information System (CSIS) to integrate resilience into urban infrastructure.

As a result, CLARITY will provide an operational eco-system of cloud based climate services to calculate and present the expected effects of CC-induced and -amplified hazards at the level of risk, vulnerability and impact functions. CLARITY will offer what-If decision support functions to investigate the effects of adaptation measures and risk reduction options in the specific project context, and allow the comparison of alternative strategies.

Four demonstration cases will showcase CLARITY climate services in different climatic, regional, infrastructure and hazard contexts in Italy, Sweden, Austria and Spain; focusing on the planning and implementation of urban infrastructure development projects.

CLARITY will provide the practical means to include the effects of CC hazards and possible adaptation and risk management strategies into planning and implementation of such projects, focusing on increasing CC resilience. Decision makers involved in these projects will be empowered to perform climate proof and adaptive planning of adaptation and risk reduction options.

OBJECTIVES

The overarching objective of CLARITY is to demonstrate the benefit of climate services for climate proofing of vulnerable large-scale investments such as urban infrastructure and transport infrastructure. Some other specific objectives are:

  1. Develop an integrated Climate Services Information System (CSIS) for resilience assessment and climate-proofing of the large scale infrastructure projects. The CLARITY CSIS will support the infrastructure planners and managers, in the task of climate-proofing large scale infrastructure projects. CSIS will be designed as an eco-system of cloud-based climate services and provide support for: Identification of project climate sensitivity (extensible to new project types); evaluation of the exposure to climate hazards under future climate conditions (anywhere in EU); assessment of vulnerability to observed and future climate (extensible to new project types); risk assessment in an all-hazard approach context; identification and appraisal of the adaptation options; development of adaptation action plans.
  2. Maximize the re-use and tailoring of existing data, technologies and services. CSIS will integrate and customize core climate services such as Copernicus Climate Change Services (C3S), in order to provide the basis data on current climate and land cover, downscaling services, seasonal and long term (IPCC) climate predictions. The basic data set will be available for the whole EU, and the users will have a possibility to improve the service by providing additional or more accurate data for their region/location.
  3. Co-design and co-development with suppliers, purveyors and end-users (urban and regional planning as well as infrastructure providers).
  4. Demonstrate and validate the added value, flexibility and adjustability of the CLARITY Services to national and/or regional differences: CLARITY will implement four representative demonstration cases to validate concepts, methods and software and to measure the added value of CLARITY for the users within and outside consortium.
  5. Create a CLARITY community encompassing the different stakeholder categories, to be able to scale up the results of the project.
  6. Make fit for Exploitation: CLARITY aims to assure that the project results are turned into an operational and sustainable Climate Services deep-seated in the existing CC adaption data and tools landscape.

Transport Research Center from CEDEX is a partner in the project, dealing basically with the analysis and assessment of CC risks in road infrastructures. New climate scenarios have to be taken into account when planning, designing and operating roads. There is a need of more durable and resilient infrastructures in order to minimize impacts and adapt them to future needs (new trends in mobility, changes in precipitation, snow or wind patterns, etc.). Drainage, materials, slopes, embankments, road markings, vegetation, energy systems and other elements have to be studied in the light of the information provided by climate services and decision making has to be even better informed. We can’t forget that a well-functioning traffic infrastructure is essential for the economy as well as for the well-being of the citizens. Laura Parra and Marcos Perelli are directly involved in the project, together with other colleagues in their different fields of expertise. In their words: “It’s the moment to be more aware of CC issues related to road infrastructures”, also: “Some roads elements might need to be adapted to new climate requirements in order to make them safer; therefore we at CEDEX are having an insight look to every item that can be affected by heavy rains, extreme temperatures and any other climate related event”.