De la prensa a las apps. Un recorrido por la comunicación de los riesgos naturales en la prensa escrita y el papel de las nuevas tecnologías

Es conocido el uso de la prensa como fuente de información y del impacto social que los fenómenos naturales provocan. También se considera útil la prensa como un indicador de la percepción social. Con el fin de analizar estos aspectos, se ha construido una base de datos en ACCESS, PRESSGAMA, con más de 16.500 noticias publicadas en la prensa escrita. PRESSGAMA contiene noticias relacionadas con desastres naturales y cambio climático para el periodo 1981-2010 a partir de una actualización sistemática para el diario La Vanguardia, uno de los más importantes en Cataluña. Para cada una de las noticias se ha creado una ficha completa con información como el titular, la fecha de publicación, la disposición y extensión, palabras clave e información sobre el episodio. A partir de esta información se ha analizado la evolución de las noticias y el tratamiento que se le ha dado a los riesgos naturales a lo largo de este periodo de tiempo. Además, se han identificado diferentes factores que influyen en la cobertura informativa y la percepción de estos eventos. La aparición de los medios digitales y las redes sociales ha supuesto grandes cambios en la comunicación del riesgo. Actualmente cuando se produce un desastre la cobertura informativa es muy elevada y prácticamente instantánea. La ciudadanía ha pasado a tener un papel más activo y protagonista, desde ser únicamente receptores a difundir e incluso generar nuevas noticias. En el campo de la comunicación de los riesgos naturales esta cuestión genera retos y oportunidades. Por esta razón también se ha analizado el papel de internet, las redes sociales y aplicaciones móviles en la comunicación del riesgo. Como ejemplo se presentará el caso de la aplicación FLOODUP, una aplicación para compartir información sobre inundaciones

Dossier pedagógico sobre los riesgos de las inundaciones y las tormentas

Podeu consultar la versió catalana a http://hdl.handle.net/2445/8610 i la versió anglesa a http://hdl.handle.net/2445/8611 Este trabajo se ha realizado gracias al apoyo de: "Grupo de Análisis de situaciones Meteorológicas Adversas (GAMA)-Universitat de Barcelona; Proyecto EDRINA-06 (FECYT. Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia); Proyecto europeo FLASH (FP6-2005-Global-4) no. 036852Dosier pedagógico compuesto por fichas sobre inundaciones, tormentas y aspectos de prevención. Partes: Observación de la atmosfera (conceptos generales, meteorología, métodos de pronóstico); Inundaciones y Tormentas; Ecología de las inundacionesEste trabajo se ha realizado gracias al apoyo de: "Grupo de Análisis de situaciones Meteorológicas Adversas (GAMA)-Universitat de Barcelona; Proyecto EDRINA-06 (FECYT. Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia); Proyecto europeo FLASH (FP6-2005-Global-4) no. 03685

Flash-floods in Catalonia: the social perception in a context of changing vulnerability

In assessing a flood event two risk components need to be considered: the intrinsic hazard of the hydrome- teorological event causing the flood and the vulnerability of the area where the precipitation has been registered. In the present study four flood events selected by the FLASH Eu- ropean project have been classified according to the charac- teristics of the meteorological event (classification according to hazard) and according to the physical and economic dam- ages caused (classification according to vulnerability). The social impact of these events is analysed taking into account the growth of the population. An increase in the number of extraordinary flash-floods was detected in the areas with a major growth of the population, as a consequence of an in- creased vulnerability of these areas, both from a physical per- spective (exposure of infrastructures) and from an economic perspective (more goods exposed). In addition, the numer- ous non-native inhabitants of the region are not aware of the meteorological risks characteristic of the area, and this con- tributes to increased social vulnerabilit

Twitter's messages about hydrometeorological events. A study on the social impact of climate change

This study is based on an interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists from natural and social sciences to create scientific knowledge about how Twitter is valuable to understand the social impact of hydrometeorological events. The capacity of citizens' reaction through Twitter to environmental issues is widely analyzed in the current scientific literature. Previous scientific works, for example, investigated the role of social media in preventing natural disasters. This study gives scientific evidence on the existence of diversity in the intentionality of Twitters' messages related to hydrometeorological events. The methodological design is formed by four experiments implemented in different moments of a temporal axis. The social impact on social media methodology (SISM) is implemented as social media analytics. From the findings obtained, it can be observed that there are different forms of intentionality in Twitter's messages related to hydrometeorological events depending on the contextual circumstances and on the characteristics of Twitter's users' profiles (including the geolocation when this information is available). This content is relevant for future works addressed to define social media communication strategies that can promote specific reactions in vulnerable groups in front the climate change

Trends in flash flood events versus convective precipitation in the Mediterranean region: the case of Catalonia

The aim of this paper is to analyse the potential relationship between flash flood events and convective precipitation in Catalonia, as well as any related trends. The paper starts with an overview of flash floods and their trends in the Mediterranean region, along with their associated factors, followed by the definition of, identification of, and trends in convective precipitation. After this introduction the paper focuses on the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula, for which there is a long-term precipitation series (since 1928) of 1-min precipitation from the Fabra Observatory, as well as a shorter (1996-2011) but more extensive precipitation series (43 rain gauges) of 5-min precipitation. Both series have been used to characterise the degree of convective contribution to rainfall, introducing the β parameter as the ratio between convective precipitation versus total precipitation in any period. Information about flood events was obtained from the INUNGAMA database, with the aim of finding any potential links to convective precipitation. This flood data was gathered using information on damage where flood is treated to as a multifactorial risk, and where any trend or anomaly might have been caused by one or more factors affecting hazard, vulnerability or exposure. Trend analysis has shown an increase in flash flood events. The fact that no trends were detected in terms of extreme values of precipitation on a daily scale, nor on the associated ETCCDI (Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices) extreme index, could point to an increase in vulnerability, an increase in exposure, or changes in land use. However, the summer increase in convective precipitation was concentrated in less torrential events, which could partially explain this positive trend in flash flood events. The β parameter has been also used to characterize the type of flood event according to the features of the precipitation. The highest values correspond to short and local events, usually with daily β values above 0.5, while the minimum threshold of daily β for catastrophic flash floods is 0.31

Trends in flash flood events versus convective precipitation in the Mediterranean region: The case of Catalonia

The aim of this paper is to analyse the potential relationship between flash flood events and convective precipitation in Catalonia, as well as any related trends. The paper starts with an overview of flash floods and their trends in the Mediterranean region, along with their associated factors, followed by the definition of, identification of, and trends in convective precipitation. After this introduction the paper focuses on the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula, for which there is a long-term precipitation series (since 1928) of 1-min precipitation from the Fabra Observatory, as well as a shorter (1996–2011) but more extensive precipitation series (43 rain gauges) of 5-min precipitation. Both series have been used to characterise the degree of convective contribution to rainfall, introducing the β parameter as the ratio between convective precipitation versus total precipitation in any period. Information about flood events was obtained from the INUNGAMA database (a flood database created by the GAMA team), with the aim of finding any potential links to convective precipitation. These flood data were gathered using information on damage where flood is treated as a multifactorial risk, and where any trend or anomaly might have been caused by one or more factors affecting hazard, vulnerability or exposure. Trend analysis has shown an increase in flash flood events. The fact that no trends were detected in terms of extreme values of precipitation on a daily scale, nor on the associated ETCCDI (Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices) extreme index, could point to an increase in vulnerability, an increase in exposure, or changes in land use. However, the summer increase in convective precipitation was concentrated in less torrential events, which could partially explain this positive trend in flash flood events. The β parameter has been also used to characterise the type of flood event according to the features of the precipitation. The highest values correspond to short and local events, usually with daily β values above 0.5, while the minimum threshold of daily β for catastrophic flash floods is 0.31.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Flash flood evolution in North-Western Mediterranean

The present paper shows an in-depth analysis of the evolution of floods and precipitation in Catalonia for the period 1981-2010. In order to have homogeneous information, and having in mind that not gauge data was available for all the events, neither for all the rivers and stream flows, daily press from a specific newspaper has been systematically analysed for this period. Furthermore a comparison with a longer period starting in 1900 has been done. 219 flood events (mainly flash flood events) have been identified for the period of 30 years (375 starting in 1900), 79 of them were ordinary, 117 of them were extraordinary and 23 of them were catastrophic, being autumn and summer the seasons with the maxima values. 19% of the events caused a total of 110 casualties. 60% of them died when they tried to cross the street or the stream. Factors like the evolution of precipitation, population density and other socio-economical aspects have been considered. The trend analysis shows an increase of 1 flood/decade that probably has been mainly due to inter-annual and intra-annual changes in population density and in land-use and land-cover

Towards a better understanding of the evolution of the flood risk in Mediterranean urban areas: the case of Barcelona

This contribution explores the evolution of the flood risk in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (MAB; Northeast Spain) from 1981 to 2015, and how it has been affected by changes in land use, population and precipitation. To complete this study, we analysed PRESSGAMA and INUNGAMA databases to look for all the information related to the floods and flash floods that have affected the chosen region. The ''Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros'', a state insurance company for extraordinary risks, provided data on economic damage. The extreme precipitation trend was analysed by the Fabra Observatory and El Prat-Airport Observatory, and daily precipitation data were provided by the State Meteorological Agency of Spain (AEMET) and the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC). Population data were obtained from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT). Changes in land use were estimated from the land use maps for Catalonia corresponding to 1956, 1993, 2000, 2005 and 2009. Prevention measures like rainwater tanks and improvements to the drainage system were also been considered. The specific case of Barcelona is presented, a city recognised by United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction as a model city for urban resilience to floods. The evolution of flood events in the MAB does not show any significant trend for this period. We argue that the evolution in floods can be explained, at least in part, by the lack of trend in extreme precipitation indices, and also by the improvements in flood prevention measures

Mapping Flood-Related Mortality in the Mediterranean Basin. Results from the MEFF v2.0 DB

Recent events in Western Attica in Greece (24 deaths in November 2017), in the Balearic Islands (13 deaths in October 2018), and in southern France (15 deaths in October 2018) show that flood-related mortality remains a major concern in Mediterranean countries facing flash floods. Over the past several years, many initiatives have arisen to create databases on flood-related mortality. An international initiative started in 2011 pooling regional and national databases on flood mortality from region and/or countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The MEditerranean Flood Fatality Database (MEFF DB) brings together, in 2018, six Mediterranean regions/countries: Catalonia (Spain), Balearic Islands (Spain), Southern France, Calabria (Italy), Greece, and Turkey, and covers the period 1980-2018. MEFF DB is on progress and, every year, new data are included, but for this study, we kept only the preliminary data that were geolocated and validated on 31st of December 2018. This research introduces a new step in the analysis of flood-related mortality and follows the statistical description of the MEFF DB already published. The goals of this paper are to draw the spatial distribution of flood mortality through a geographical information system (GIS) at different spatial scales: country, NUTS 3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Level 3) regions, catchment areas, and grid. A fatality rate (F: number of deaths/year/million of inhabitants) is created to help this analysis. Then, we try to relate mortality to basic (human or physical) drivers such as population density, rainfall seasonality, or rainfall frequency across the Mediterranean Basin. The mapping of F shows a negative mortality gradient between the western and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The south of France appears to be the most affected region. The maps also highlight the seasonality of flood-related deaths with the same west-east gradient. It confirms that flood mortality follows the climatological seasonal patterns across the Mediterranean Basin. Flood-related fatalities mainly occur during the early fall season in the western part of the Mediterranean area, while the Easter Basin is affected later, in November or during the winter season. Eastern Turkey introduces another pattern, as mortality is more severe in summer. Mortality maps are then compared with factors that potentially contribute to the occurrence of flood fatalities, such as precipitation intensity (rainfall hazard), to explain geographical differences in the fatality rate. The density of a fatal event is correlated to the population density and the rainfall frequency. Conversely, the average number of deaths per event depends on other factors such as prevention or crisis managemen

The FLASH project: using lightning data to better understand and predict flash floods

The FLASH project was implemented from 2006 to 2010 underthe EU FP6 framework. The project focused on using lightning observations to better understand and predict convective storms that result in flash floods. As part of the project 23 case studies of flash floods in the Mediterranean region were examined. For the analysis of these storms lightning data from the ZEUS network were used together with satellite derived rainfall estimates in orderto understand the storm development and electrification. In addition, these case studies were simulated using mesoscale meteorological models to better understand the meteorological and synoptic conditions leading up to these intense storms. As part of this project tools for short term predictions (nowcasts) of intenseconvection across the Mediterranean and Europe, and long term forecasts (a few days) of the likelihood of intense convection were developed. The project also focused on educationaloutreach through our website http://flashproject.orgsupplying real time lightning observations, real time experimental nowcasts, forecasts and educational materials. While flash floods and intense thunderstorms cannot be preventedas the climate changes, long-range regional lightning networks can supply valuable data, in realtime, for warningend-users and stakeholders of imminent intense rainfall and possible flash floods