Urban Klima 2050 works on an observation platform to monitor climate change in the Basque Country
02/06/2022
- The partner entities that collaborate on the development of ‘Climate change hub’ within the framework of the Urban Klima 2050 project: Ihobe, Naturklima, Azti, Neiker and Tecnalia make progress during a working session on the definition of indicators for the monitoring and observation system that they hope to publish at the end of this year.
Analyse, define and disseminate. This is the working method of the ‘Climate change hub: observation and monitoring system’ of the Urban Klima 2050 project associated with action C9.1 of the Basque Country's largest climate action project for the coming years.
After two years of an exhaustive bibliographical review of the scientific literature, the analysis of similar platforms and a reflection process, at the end the year the partner entities of the Hub want to launch the observation platform that will enable monitoring climate change in the Basque Country, its evolution, impact and the effectiveness of the adaptation measure implemented.
Last 27 May Ihobe, Naturklima, Azti, Neiker and Tecnalia participated in a working session to advance in the definition o the indicators that will be part of the system for the monitoring and observation of climate change in the Basque Country. Experts in meteorology, the marine environment and the agroforestry sector debated on the need for these indicators to be:
- Understandable for users with different levels of knowledge, from the general public to expert users.
- Show the trend of climate change.
- The results must be a reflection of what is shown by the scientific evidence.
Among the indicators that will be part of this platform there will be:
- Weather and climate indicators derived from temperature and rainfall, such as the number of heatwaves, number of tropical nights or drought-related indexes.
- Physical/chemical parameters of the sea such as pH, temperature, average level or height of waves.
- Indicators related with the marine fauna and microfauna such as benthic communities, marine meadows, cetaceans and sea birds.
- Indicators related to health such as infectious vectors, abundance of mosquitos and ticks.
- Indicators from the marine medium related to health such as anisakiasis in commercial fish.
Once the indicators that will be part of the platform in this first phase have been selected, the work over the next few months will focus on testing the most adequate forms of representation under the criteria mentioned.
