ICARIA: New tools to anticipate and reduce climate hazards affecting critical infrastructure and assets

Extreme climate events are no longer an exceptional scenario; they have become a growing risk for cities, public services and essential infrastructure. Intense rainfall, coastal storms, heatwaves, droughts, extreme winds and wildfires have exposed the vulnerability of assets which, in many cases, were not designed with the impact of climate change in mind.

In this context, the European ICARIA project (Improving ClimAte Resilience of crItical Assets) has addressed a particularly relevant challenge for public authorities and operators: gaining a better understanding of how these events, often simultaneous or cascading, can affect people, homes, road networks or essential supplies, and how these impacts can be reduced through effective adaptation measures.

ICARIA’s main contribution has been to turn this complexity into useful tools for decision-making. In the case of the Barcelona metropolitan area, the project has developed new pluvial flood risk maps that have made it possible to estimate how flood susceptibility could evolve over the coming decades under different climate change scenarios. The results indicate that, if adaptation measures are not adopted, areas vulnerable to severe pluvial flooding could increase by up to 25% over the next 75 years. This knowledge has made it possible to identify more precisely which municipalities, neighbourhoods or streets could be most affected and, therefore, where action should be taken first.

The solution developed by the project combines risk maps, impact studies and a free, accessible decision-support system for the stakeholders involved in developing climate policies. The approach is not limited to analysing isolated events, but instead incorporates a holistic view of extreme phenomena. This has made it possible to study, for example, how the coincidence of intense rainfall and a coastal storm — as happened during Storm Gloria — could hinder drainage into the sea and worsen flooding in coastal areas. Based on this analysis, the ICARIA framework has also proposed new adaptation measures such as green roofs, porous pavements and bioretention areas, conceived as sustainable, replicable solutions that can also be useful in other European regions.

The UPC research team, led by the FLUMEN Research Institute, has played a significant role in this progress, both through its scientific contribution and through its ability to translate knowledge into practical tools. The project has been co-led by Veolia in Spain and UPC. The participation of the Flumen Institute has strengthened flood-risk analysis and the generation of useful knowledge to move towards more resilient planning. Another distinguishing feature has been the work carried out with local stakeholders through communities of practice, which has helped align the tools developed with real planning and management needs.

Budget and Consortium

ICARIA is a project co-funded by the Horizon Europe programme and has run for 3 years (January 2023 - March 2026). It has received total funding of €2.29 million. The consortium is made up of 16 European partners, including, in addition to UPC and Veolia Spain, Cetaqua – Water Technology Centre, Aigües de Barcelona, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), Draxis Environmental, VERBUND, the South Aegean Region of Greece, the Climate Research Foundation, the Institut de Recerca en Energia de Catalunya (IREC), the National Centre for Scientific Research Demokritos, the National Centre for Research and Technological Development, the National Laboratory for Civil Engineering, the Austrian Institute of Technology, the University of Naples Federico II and the University of Exeter.