El proyecto “Adaptación, restauración y creación de hábitats para anfibios amenazados por el cambio climático en los Montes de Valsaín, Segovia” nace con el objetivo de contrarrestar el declive global de los anfibios, que actualmente constituyen el grupo de vertebrados más amenazado del mundo.

Insurance is of paramount importance when needing to adapt to the current and future risks of climate change and its consequences (often consisting in natural catastrophes and extreme hydrometeorological phenomena), which directly affect the activity of the insurance sector. The latter is forced to take measures to assess the change in the covered risks and seek solutions that allow reducing damage and increasing the resilience of society, even when the latter also plays a fundamental role in their mitigation.

The project was designed to prevent fires and improve the biodiversity of a typical Mediterranean mountain environment such as Montserrat, through silvopastoral management practices.

The Ebro delta (Catalonia, Spain) and its coastal lagoons (Alfacada and Tancada) are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly to sea level rise. In combination with sediment deficit due to river regulation and subsidence, sea lever rise can lead to exacerbated coastal erosion and retreat. Local management practices (e.g. intensive rice farming) have also affected the natural habitats and species of the delta, causing wetland loss and changes in salinity and water quality.

Mosquito Alert is a cooperative, non-profit citizen science project coordinated by different Public Research Centers, focusing on the development of predictive models and methods that combine citizen data (big data) with data from authoritative sources (Public monitoring or control Entities, Universities, ...). These models thus become key public health management tools for assessing and controlling the presence of species of mosquitoes that carry arboviruses (arthropod-borne viruses), causing global diseases such as zika, dengue and chikungunya, that require dynamic global solutions.

Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park is a protected natural space, a unique Mediterranean wetland of great natural and cultural value ​​due to the hydrographic basin and geology on which it sits. The confluence of two rivers in an area  of minimum slope causes their waters to overflow, which together with the underground contribution of a large aquifer leads to the formation of a puddled river zone: the fluvial flats.

Author of the picture: Guillermo Cobos Campos/Fototeca CENEAM

Until the 70s, the lower course of the Arga River near the confluence with the Aragon River flowed with a meandering channel, occupying a wide flood plain characterized by intense fluvial dynamics. In this situation, it was considered necessary to carry out works to contain river floods, by rectifying and channel the section stretching from the town of Falces to the mouth of the Aragón River.

The European LIFE CERSUDS project (Ceramic Sustainable Urban Drainage System) is developing sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) that use ceramic materials of low commercial value as a filter system for construction or paving. Its main objective is to improve the capacity of cities to adapt to climate change and to promote the use of green infrastructures in their urban planning for the rehabilitation of such urban areas. To achieve this, LIFE CERSUDS has developed and implemented a sustainable urban ceramic drainage system with low environmental impact.

A large restoration project started in 2011 in the former saltworks of Salin-de Giraud, located in the southeast of the Rhône delta, within the Camargue Regional Natural Park and the UNESCO‘s Man and Biosphere Reserve. This site represents a vast coastal area of 6,500 ha in the municipalities of Arles and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, partially transformed and used for industrial salt production from 1950 to 2008. It was characterised by a strong artificialisation, with seafront dykes and disconnection among different water bodies used as ponds for salt extraction.

Fire is the most significant natural threat to forests and wooded areas of the Mediterranean basin. The average annual number of forest fires in the Mediterranean basin, particularly in southern Europe, is close to 50,000 - twice as many as during the 1970s. The natural plant ecosystem of the Mediterranean basin is rich in shrubs and coniferous forests and, thus, particularly susceptible to fire. Meanwhile, summer periods are now warmer, drier and longer and projected changes in the climate suggest increases in the frequency and severity of forest fires.