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Climate Detectives Projects 2023-2024

Project title: Impacto económico del cambio climático

  National selected winner

IES El Torrelló   Onda   Spain

Research question

¿El cambio climático es un problema medioambiental o va a afectar a nuestra economía en un futuro inmediato?

Summary of the project

In this project, we will focus on two distinct aspects of climate change in Castellón, forest fires, and torrential rain. 
We have conducted an analysis of the causes and economic consequences of Villanueva de Viver’s recent forest fire, that lasted from the 23rd of March to the 1st of April 2023
We have also analysed the torrential rains on the 23rd of March 2023 in Benicassim. 
As for the fire in Villanueva, this area has already been hit by various smaller forest fires like the one in Montán, so it was no surprise that the fire expanded quickly due to the unfavourable wind and dry terrain. It released noxious gases and forced many people to evacuate the area. It caused huge economic losses to the local government and industry, as the authorities had to spend about 4 million euros to stop the fire and reanimate the local tourism industry, and many businesses had to close for a long period of time
The torrential rains in Benicassim were very severe, causing economic losses at a private level, especially to many businesses located on the beachfront. This was not the first time that torrential rain hit Benicassim; the events of 2022 remained fresh in everyone’s memory. Those rains endangered many people’s lives and wreaked havoc on the population, causing 400.000 euros in damages, destroying apartments, cars and leaving the entire town completely covered in half a meter of water. 

Main results and Conclusions

¿El cambio climático es un problema medioambiental o va a afectar a nuestra economía en un futuro inmediato?

As you can see, climate change has had a significant impact on our local economy, with many businesses often having to close their doors due to the many natural disasters. As well as the many costs, the government must take on for damage control and reviving the tourism industry. It is incredibly clear that climate change is not just an environmental problem, but it also affects our economy very substantially. 
This investigation has also shown how unprotected many areas of Castellón really are, especially in the rural environment, with some sources citing that the Villanueva forest fire could have been easily stopped with basic protective measures. 
Besides that, it has displayed how susceptible beach towns and cities are to floods caused by torrential rains, like we saw in Benicassim. 

What’s Next? Actions to make a difference and help lessen the problem

What actions do we propose to change things?
Since we cannot prevent the increase in damage, we can mitigate the impact with the following solutions:
• Policies prohibiting the construction of infrastructure in flood-prone areas.
• Do not divert rivers from their natural channels
• Indicate flood-prone areas and block access to these areas when the weather threatens us.
• Implement an alert system that notifies the entire population through telecommunications devices when we are subject to any climatic danger.
To avoid or mitigate fires, we propose the following solutions:
• Active forestry policy that favours transhumant livestock farming.
• Increase the number of firewalls.
• Promote policies for the conservation of arable areas.
• Also the following invention that you can investigate in the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KQcnT8ZnQo 

Project link:

https://portal.edu.gva.es/ieseltorrello/programes/projecte-detectius-climatics/

Project presentation

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