Since the industrial revolution, human activities have influenced the Earth’s climate. The effects of climate change are particularly visible in the Mediterranean region, which is warming faster than the global average and is frequently affected by extreme weather events, such as heat waves and heavy precipitation. In turn, climate models, the only tool currently available for studying the future climate signal, project an increase in the frequency and/or intensity of these events. Densely populated regions, such as the Spanish Mediterranean coast, are particularly vulnerable to prevailing and future climate conditions, which may cause significant socio-economic losses. This is the case of the blue economy, understood as those economic activities linked to seas and oceans, which is an important and essential source of wealth and prosperity in the region and which is strongly dependent on climatic conditions. Today, on the International Day against Climate Change, it is crucial to recognise the urgency of addressing these challenges and to promote actions that strengthen the resilience of our ecosystems and economies.
The ECOAZUL-MED project aims to generate a web tool for public use that provides relevant climate information to support informed decision-making to strengthen the climate resilience of these sectors and ensure their sustainable development through the implementation of appropriate adaptation strategies. Specifically, the tool provides oceanic and atmospheric information, up to 2064, from high-resolution coupled regional simulations of the Med-CORDEX initiative, assuming different greenhouse gas scenarios.
The ECOAZUL-MED project, funded by the Torres Quevedo Programme of the Ministerio Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades and led by PhD. Alba de la Vara (Kveloce), concludes this week after three years of work. Throughout its journey, the project has combined quantitative and qualitative research in order to ensure that the final version of the tool meets the needs and expectations of users in these three key sectors. On the one hand, the quantitative research included the analysis of large volumes of climate data provided by four pioneering European climate institutions:
- Florence Sevault (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques, CNRM)
- Laurent Li (Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique, LMD)
- Giovanni Zizzi (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, CMCC)
- Dmitry Sein (Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, AWI).
On the other hand, qualitative research involved the engagement and involvement of relevant actors linked to these sectors in participatory activities from the beginning of the project, in order to nurture it with first-hand information. Activities such as focus groups, surveys or workshops have served to (i) decide on the information to be presented in the tool; (ii) understand the implications of the results offered by the tool in the different sectors; (iii) generate support documentation included in the tool; (iv) study the usability of the tool developed; and (v) validate the final version of the tool.
The project website, now in its final version (www.ecoazul-med.com), presents a simple interface from which users can learn more about the project, as well as access the tool from which they can download the desired climate information. Via a simple menu, users can choose the climate information of interest (e.g. daily maximum temperature, precipitation, heavy precipitation or heat waves), the climate scenario, the future time period and the time frequency (monthly or seasonal). Clicking on this will open an explanatory caption and the corresponding figure, which can be viewed online or downloaded to your devices. The website offers a wide range of documents and resources, in Spanish and English, including materials to support the use of the tool, such as the user manual and the explanatory video tutorial. In addition, throughout the project, an effort has been made to provide users with materials that serve to improve climate literacy and awareness. Thus, the website provides users with reports, infographics, etc. on the relationship between climate and the different sectors, how the tool can help in their management, socio-economic implications and green and blue employment implications derived from the results of the tool in the different sectors, etc.
The tool, which has been presented at different scientific events (congresses) and regional media, was recently presented in its final version at the MED-CLIVAR 2024 congress (Lecce, Italy). We would like to thank the many people and institutions that have supported and accompanied us on this journey for their high level of involvement.
We do not want to close without first highlighting that the results of our tool, in line with the state of the art, indicate potentially unfavourable climatic conditions for the development of these activities. Although in the short term the changes are moderate, they will be accentuated in the coming decades, which calls for an urgent need to adapt to possible negative socio-economic impacts derived from the climate, promoting the sustainable development of these sectors.
Senior R&D&I Consultant and Climate Change Researcher
Principal Investigator of ECOAZUL-MED