Risc Miño Limia Project establishes flood and pollution warning systems

27 Nov Risc Miño Limia Project establishes flood and pollution warning systems

On the closing day of the RISC-Miño-Limia Project, held yesterday by videoconference with all the beneficiary partners on the Portuguese and Spanish sides, the conclusions of the study of the impact of climate change on water resources in the international demarcation were presented, highlighting the expected decrease in both the medium and long term. It was also explained that, with the new early warning system for floods, based on the rainfall forecast data provided by several agencies, including Aemet and Meteogalicia, a forecast of flows and the extent of flooding is obtained, so that measures can be taken as far in advance as possible.

The RISC-ML Project was created to improve the management and capacity to react to the problems associated with extreme phenomena, floods and droughts, and to mitigate their effects in the international hydrographic demarcation of the Miño and Limia river basins. The partners on the Portuguese side are the Portuguese Environmental Agency APA and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, and on the Spanish side are the Campus of Ourense and the Hydrographic Confederation of the Miño-Sil. With a budget of 2.3 million euros, this project began in the summer of 2017 and ends on December 31, after being extended due to the pandemic.

Yesterday, the improvement of real-time data communications was announced, through the expansion of the number of control points of the hydrometry network, with eight new detectors for the Automatic Hydrological Information System on the Spanish side and two for the National Water Resources Information System on the Portuguese side, with which level, flow and precipitation data are obtained. In addition, it was explained the increase of the stations of the Automatic Water Quality System Network (SAICA), in a total of 5, for the reception, in real time, of data on temperature, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, PH or ammonium, which will be used to detect specific pollution episodes.