Climate Actions for the Ebro Delta (ACDE)
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EBRO ADMICLIM Pilot project for adaptation and mitigation measures to climate change in the Ebro Delta LIFE13 ENV/ES/001182 Climate Actions for the Ebro Delta (ACDE) Test to inject sediment in the River Ebro, Benifallet, 5 May 2017 May 2018 Climate Actions for the Ebro Delta (ACDE) Table of Contents PART I. DIAGNOSIS ..................................................................................................................... 4 1. Description of the Ebro Delta ........................................................................................... 4 1.1. Territorial context: physical environment .................................................................................... 4 1.2. Territorial context: natural environment ..................................................................................... 8 1.3. Sectoral context: socioeconomic environment ..........................................................................10 2. Climate and climate change in the Ebro Delta ............................................................... 24 2.1. Recent evolution of the climate variables ..................................................................................24 2.2. Climate projections .....................................................................................................................27 2.3. Hydrological resources ................................................................................................................28 2.4. Hydrological projections .............................................................................................................31 2.5. Temperature and sea level .........................................................................................................32 2.6. Coastal systems and littoral dynamics .......................................................................................35 2.7. Marine environment and marine ecosystems ...........................................................................37 2.8. Freshwater ecosystems: lagoons ................................................................................................38 2.9. Terrestrial ecosystems ................................................................................................................39 2.10. The rice fields .........................................................................................................................40 2.11. Greenhouse gas emissions in the Ebro Delta .......................................................................41 3. Principal vulnerabilities of the Ebro Delta ...................................................................... 43 3.1. Matrix showing interaction between impacts, risks/vulnerabilities and economic sectors ....46 3.2. Vulnerability analysis ..................................................................................................................50 4. Context of current policies ............................................................................................. 54 5. Main challenges identified in the Ebro Delta ................................................................. 56 6. Conclusions of the diagnosis ........................................................................................... 57 PART II. ADAPTATION AND MITIGATION MEASURES TO CLIMATE CHANGE ........................... 58 7. Adaptation and mitigation measures to climate change ............................................... 58 7.1. MEASURE AB.1: Put an end to individualism and foster a common project by and for the territory; a project agreed and assumed by all the stakeholders, which can be used to define a new governance model ....................................................................................................................60 7.2. MEASURE C.1: Implement environmental flow rates in the River Ebro, so as to maintain the structure and functioning of the river and its estuary, and restore sedimentary flow. ................61 2 Climate Actions for the Ebro Delta (ACDE) 7.3. MEASURE C.2: Recover the protective function of coastal systems and work together with natural processes to mitigate sea level rise and coastline regression ...........................................63 7.4. MEASURE D.1: Optimise greenhouse gas emissions, carbon sequestration and removal of nutrients in the rice fields in the Delta, improve farming conditions and increase the product’s added value. .....................................................................................................................................66 7.5. MEASURE D.2: Incorporate the impacts and risks derived from climate change in the definition of the policies that have to guide the different socioeconomic sectors .......................67 8. Table showing the relationship between challenges, measures and actions ................ 69 9. Fact sheets of the Climate Actions in the Ebro Delta ..................................................... 72 10. Bibliographic references ............................................................................................... 133 10.1 Bibliographic sources consulted according to actions .............................................................138 10.2 Acronyms ...................................................................................................................................139 3 Climate Actions for the Ebro Delta (ACDE) PART I. DIAGNOSIS 1. Description of the Ebro Delta 1.1. Territorial context: physical environment In its final stretch, the River Ebro forms the second-largest delta of the western Mediterranean, with an emerged surface of around 320 km2 (see Table 1) and altitudes verging on sea level. Generally speaking, the Ebro Delta is shaped like a triangle, with a gentle, flat coastline, made up of fine sand and a drainage network defined by a single main channel. As regards sedimentology, the Ebro Delta is considered to be dominated by wave action, where the shape of the delta front is mostly conditioned by wave movement, compared to other shaping agents such as coarse sediment or tides. Its distinctive geological and geomorphological features and the diversity of dynamic processes convert it into a unique place; it is the second largest wetland area in the western Mediterranean and is the natural environment with the greatest relevance of the Catalan coast. Length / Perimeter Geomorphological element Name Surface (Ha) (km) Delta Delta de l’Ebre 58.42 29,753.24 Punta del Fangar 13.8 489.9 Spits Punta de la Banya 41.74 2,664.69 El Fangar 31.73 2,430.31 Bays Els Alfacs 59.89 6,994.93 Estuary River mouth 16.27 400.67 Sandy area 1.98 4.18 Fangar 7.39 480.06 Goleró 1.13 0.62 Marquesa 1.77 12.67 Bassa de l’Arena 3.1 14.5 Riumar 3.45 59.75 Sant Antoni 1.93 14.97 Beaches Buda 4.66 107.16 Alfacada 2.77 55.8 Serrallo 1.81 72.65 Platjola 1.31 56.65 Eucaliptus 2.68 77.42 Aluet 1.95 29.94 Trabucador 20.39 561.01 Fangar Beach 77.71 Marquesa Beach 8.34 Sand dune systems Bassa de l’Arena Beach 7.82 Trabucador Beach 336 Others 204.47 Les Olles 2.4 27.8 Canal Vell 8.68 245.46 Garxal 6.04 205.72 Lagoons Calaixos de Buda 12.13 507.09 Alfacada 3.94 65.86 Platjola 5 50.14 4 Climate Actions for the Ebro Delta (ACDE) Length / Perimeter Geomorphological element Name Surface (Ha) (km) Tancada 9.11 238.8 Encanyissada 22.68 782.4 Table 1. Geomorphological and structural elements. Source: OCCC. Baseline study n1. Delta de l’Ebre (2008) Throughout history, the Delta has undergone very significant geomorphological changes. Based on the analysis of historiographic documentation, different interpretations have been put forward regarding the evolution of the delta in recent millennia (e.g. Canicio & Ibáñez, 1999). There is a wide variety of geological, radiometric, palaeontological and sedimentological evidence (Cearreta et al., 2016) that show the formation of the deltaic plain of the Ebro commenced during the early Holocene, about 8,000 years ago, like the rest of deltaic areas on the planet (Stanley & Warne, 1997). Three fundamental physiographic units can be distinguished in the Delta: the deltaic plain, coastal and transition environments and marine environments. The topography is extremely flat; approximately 10% of its surface has an altitude of over 2 m, 30% has an altitude of between 1 m and 2 m, and the remaining 60% has an altitude of under 1 m. The seafront stretches for 51 km. The Ebro Delta, like all deltaic areas on the planet, makes up a geological system that is in permanent evolution, the result of the activity of the processes of erosion, transport and sedimentation of materials throughout the drainage basin; coastal and marine currents; variation of the sea level and dynamics of the lithosphere. Recent sediments in its emerged part, associated to the slowdown of sea level rise during the Holocene, have a maximum thickness of about 60 metres (Maestro, 2002). As a whole, these recent sediments on the deltaic plain define a wedge-shaped body that commences at the foot of the Montsià mountain range (standing on the south-west margin of the Delta) and Cardó-el Boix (on the north-west); and it thickens towards the sea. The set of Holocene sediments cover an older sedimentary succession from the Pleistocene and Pliocene, which at some points reach a thickness of over 1,000 metres. These sediments make up the sedimentary records that have represented the Ebro drainage basin for the last 5 million years. Lying underneath them is a basement of Miocene and Mesozoic material, divided