Our View: Will Spain be prepared for future extreme weather?

WITH Storm Gloria already in full swing and having given the east of Spain such a powerful battering, more than 30 provinces in Spain were placed on high alert.

As most of the sunny coast rarely have to suffer such extreme weather we have to ask that with such a specific infrastructure can they ever be prepared?

Catalonia’s regional government went as far as banning outdoor activities in Girona and Barcelona, while Alicante Airport was forced to temporarily close, disrupting more than 200 flights.

In southern Alicante, scenes of flooding and street debris reminded residents of the massive storm that hit them in September, when rivers burst their banks and caused widespread damage to property and crops.

With the financial infrastructure of these coastal areas dependent on their beautiful beachfronts and import and export of seafood, the installation of storm surge barriers could provide protection from flooding during extreme weather events.

By using a movable barrier can still allow a flow of either maritime traffic or even natural movements of water to and fro. Many of the local governments already have beach regeneration projects to hinder erosion or regenerate the coastline.

Future housing construction projects may need to take into consideration the ability to withstand stronger winds and the use of stronger or different materials.

At any rate, Spanish cities will have to be built in a way that goes against what appears to be their nature, using the fullness of human ingenuity not to trample the earth and replace natural with the artificial, but to engineer both nature and the land in a way that emphasizes their codependence.