CLIMRisk -Climate change adaptation measures in the management of natural and environmental risks

Natural hazards and correlated risks fill worldwide headlines raising both public and governmental concern. Though only major impacts reach the national headlines, locally many regions are already experiencing hands-on the effects of climate change by means of droughts, heatwaves, floods, forest fires, among others. The loss of lives and the considerable cost to the public revenue led to the decree of new representative offices and branches of crisis and civil protection. Facing a new public and scientific information demand for new data and above all solutions for such pertinent issues, the Polytechnic of Tomar proposes CLIMRisk ’Climate change adaptation measures in the management of natural and environmental risks’ as a starting point to a new integrated line of research where all variables alike will be addressed, studied and interpreted in a geographical database (geodatabase). The consortium encompasses both in scientific research relevance and geographical coverage the institutions: Polytechnics of Tomar, Leiria and Castelo Branco; the Municipalities of Our´em and Ferreira do Zˆezere; and the Civil Protection and Forestry bureaus. The CLIMRisk project focuses on a specific transitional area (NUTS II), strategically located between the southern plains and the northern mountainous area, which intrinsically experiences the influence of the complete set of risks characteristic to both regions. Building upon the published research and the technical ability of the created consortium, CLIMRisk proposes the integrated study of climate, coastal areas, rivers, forestry, and biological variables, associated risks, thus building upon the created knowledgebase to propose useable tailor made adaptation measures. The outputs of the project clearly benefit the scientific community and inherent educational mainstreaming, whereas directly targeting organizations dealing with the general public, and environmental education. Furthermore, is of utmost relevance for policymakers, decision-makers, and stakeholders, as a valuable tool in developing suitable adaptation measures, which hopefully will reduce their harmful effects at a regional scale.

FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion