The first General Assembly of the CLIMAAX project took place in Setúbal (Portugal) between the 29th of January and the 2nd of February 2024. The meeting was excellently organized by the Setúbal Municipality and was arranged in three parts: two days were dedicated to the consortium meeting, one day was filled by the first webstival and the last two days were used for the on-site visit (Setúbal is one of the five CLIMAAX’s pilot sites). Being recently appointed as co-chair of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II, Bart van den Hurk officially announced in Setúbal to hand over the project management to Frederiek Sperna Weiland and Dana Stuparu (Deltares).
The 5-days stay has been a precious opportunity for the partners to catch-up and to have the time to live discuss the progress, solve most bottlenecks, and prepare for the next steps. In such intensive atmosphere, it was possible to strengthen the Framework and the Toolbox, incorporating contributions and experiences of the pilots.
Several working sessions were held among the various partners, in order to improve the tools developed by the project and making their formats more user-friendly. The webstival went successful too. It promoted the on-going Open Call, adding the experience of the pilots and the expectations of those interested in.
The pilots’ workshop promoted by the pilot Setúbal, marking its beginning with a field trip to the Sado estuary, in order to show all participants the territory from another perspective, which allowed to focus on two of the main risks for Setúbal: slope instability and estuarine flooding.
The afternoon working sessions of February 1st and 2nd featured presentations by local stakeholders , with the main emphasis on their expectations regarding the CLIMAAX project and what they can contribute to enrich it.
On the last day of work, the field trip was a visit to Serra da Arrábida, with a stop in Mitrena, to mention the main risk of this area estuarine flooding, at Praia da Figueirinha, where the greatest risks are fires and slope instability, coastal erosion and retreat of cliffs, in the Castle of Palmela, to have a global view of the territory of the city of Setúbal and consequent risks associated with its geographical position – floods river infections, fires, drought and excessive heat.
The visit ended with a stop at the Várzea Urban Park, with a quick reference to the flooding episodes that the downtown area suffered before the hydraulic structure works that took place there.
Picture credits: Município de Setúbal, Neus Armenjach, Michaela Baumann, Davide Michielin, Bart van den Hurk.
