Strengthening flood resilience by integrating flood risk management into local governance frameworks

Key Learnings

About the Region

Climate Threats

The Navarra region is experiencing increasing climate-related challenges, including a rise in floods and winter oceanic fronts. Over the last decade, extreme storms and heavy rainfall events have become more frequent, leading to widespread flooding around many of Navarra’s rivers. In July 2019, a severe Mediterranean-style storm struck several municipalities, including Tafalla and Olite. Similar events in May and July 2023 caused extensive damage in both the northern (Bera) and southern (Caparroso) parts of the region. Many of these floods occurred in small catchments, where intense rainfall can trigger flash flooding within just one or two hours. Additionally, winter rainfall systems – such as the “Barra” front in December 2021 (Figure 2) – have also had severe impacts, including one fatality, significant infrastructure damage, and multiple evacuations. Climate projections suggest that extreme weather events will become increasingly common, further exacerbating flood risks in Navarra’s municipalities.

Municipal collaboration to achieve flood resilience in the region

Once the stakeholders elaborated the plans, the city councils presented them to residents and disseminated information leaflets detailing how to respond in case of an emergency. In addition to these information campaigns, the project team organised workshops and community engagement meetings to provide ongoing training and strengthen emergency preparedness.

Flood risk plans provide municipalities and communities with up-to-date information, including forecasts, real-time rainfall and streamflow data, and clearly defined emergency measures. To support this, the project team – comprising hydrology and data experts – developed a specialised monitoring tool with support from software development companies. This tool enables real-time flood risk monitoring and facilitates timely communication between municipal authorities, operational teams, and the local population.

The system leverages data from 104 rain gauges and 75 streamflow measurement stations across the region, operated by various public agencies. Thanks to financial support from the LIFE-IP Nadapta-CC project, the team installed six additional stations in catchments with limited existing data – some in sparsely populated areas such as the Pyrenees valleys.

Each Local Emergency Plan includes a cartographic annex, detailing the location of streamflow and precipitation monitoring stations. The annex features maps that illustrate key information, including flood hazard zones (based on different return periods (Figure 4)), flood risk maps, and targeted action zones where specific measures should prevent or minimise damages.

Emergency response ensuring flood resilience

All local plans in Navarra follow the standardised structure and definition of emergency levels, defined as follows:

• Emergency 0: River streamflow has significantly increased, but the river has not overflowed yet.
• Emergency 1: Floods and overflows have started in low-lying areas close to the riverbank, without causing severe damage.
• Emergency 2: Floods will cause serious damage in urban areas. Vehicles and personal mobility have to be restricted.
• Emergency 3: Flooding causes serious and widespread effects that cannot be addressed with municipal resources alone. At this point, the activation of the Regional Plan is required.

For each plan, the project team has defined rainfall rates and/or river streamflow thresholds. Once at these thresholds, local authorities activate the corresponding emergency level. A mass SMS warning system then disseminates this information quickly and effectively to the local population. Each Operational Group, as outlined in the plan (Figure 5), performs the designated actions according to the established procedure.  

The project team also digitised the Local Plans by developing an app and a dedicated website to manage each plan (Figure 6). These digital tools enable efficient monitoring of the plan's implementation, including an early warning system that tracks the emergency level thresholds and sends warning notifications to plan managers (3 to 5 local authorities).

The web-based tool and app allow real-time monitoring of the actions taken, with a colour-coded system: green for completed actions, orange for actions in progress, and red for actions not yet carried out.  Figure 6 (right image) shows a screenshot of the app interface, highlighting the screen that local mayors use to easily activate different emergency levels.

Local authorities and workers participate in annual training sessions, as shown in Figure 7, to test and familiarise themselves with the plan’s implementation. Each year, teams review and update the planned actions and involved personnel.

Drafting municipal emergency plans incorporating robust early warning systems in towns with significant flood risk facilitates local level integration, being closest to the population in managing flood emergencies. This allows each city council to practice coordinated emergency management with the Regional Civil Protection, as well as better preparation for potentially significantly increasing risks due to climate change.

Luis Sanz Azcárate, Technical Drector, GAN-NIK

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