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European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency
  • News article
  • 22 August 2024
  • European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency
  • 2 min read

LIFE Garachico: protecting island communities from the sea

Atlantic storms can cause devastating flooding on the beautiful coastlines of Macaronesia - a problem that will only get worse with climate change. LIFE Garachico is finding affordable ways to help communities cope.

LIFE-garachico
Meter which can measure the currents, which is part of the solutions to anticipate flooding from the shore. © LIFE20 CCA/ES/001641 - All rights reserved. Licensed to the European Union under conditions

Look west from the volcanic islands of Macaronesia and you’ll see the vast Atlantic Ocean stretch out before you. It’s clear why these tiny European archipelagos can bear the full force of storms that whip across the Atlantic. With climate change threatening to further increase their vulnerability, the LIFE Garachico project is helping the islanders adapt to the rising threat from the sea. 

The five-year, €2.6 million project is piloting a series of affordable measures aimed at reducing the impact of coastal flooding and storm surges in the pretty, low-lying coastal town of Garachico, on the north coast of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. 

One major action it has taken is to set up an early warning system so local residents and businesses can prepare for potential flooding. The system uses wave monitoring equipment, cameras, seabed mapping and forecasting tools, providing up to 72 hours notice of events.

The warning system - the first of its kind in the Canary Islands - will be combined with other flood-prevention schemes such as installing special “anti-impact” benches along the seafront to act as barriers to diffuse the energy of incoming waves, reducing the damage they cause. 

Extreme coastal flooding in Macaronesia - formed of the Azores, Canary Islands, Madeira and Cape Verde Islands - is a growing menace to these popular tourist destinations. Over the past decade, it has caused around €250 million of damage and losses to the densely populated urban areas on the island coastlines. Coastal floods cause around €800,000 worth of damage a year in Garachico alone. 

Adapting to the growing risk of flooding under climate change is a major part of the #WaterWiseEU campaign. Yet, many traditional flooding defence options - such as building sea walls and other hard infrastructure - are too expensive for remote coastal communities.

There is an ‘urgent need to have effective adaptation strategies in the face of coastal flooding due to climate change in the Macaronesian region’, says Laura Comes Aguilar, technical coordinator at LIFE Garachico. This means seeking more affordable, non-conventional solutions.

For example, the project has also reduced the number of car parks in flood-prone areas of Garachico, as this can be a major source of damage as vehicles are overwhelmed.

Alongside these ‘hard measures’, the project team - which is coordinated by the local authority Garachico and includes other local authorities of the Canary Islands, the University of La Laguna in Spain and the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering in Portugal - has analysed data from residents and businesses in Garachico to help them better assess where the greatest flood risks are.

They have also helped the community develop ‘self-protection protocols’ for the most vulnerable areas, alongside plans to alter traffic and pedestrian traffic in flood zones.

Lessons from Garachico will then be adopted in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife and Praia da Vitória in Terceira Island, Azores - and eventually more widely across Macaronesia. 


LIFE Garachico supports the EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change by helping island coastal communities become more resilient to the unavoidable impacts of climate change. It also contributes to the European Green Deal, the Water Framework DirectiveMarine Strategy Framework Directive, and the EU Urban Agenda.

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