Presented the European Coastal Living Lab, in which Benidorm is integrated and which seeks to improve the climate resilience of the coast

Benidorm today hosted the presentation of the Coastal Living Lab, a real European test bench pilot that will measure the evolution of the coast and the impact of human activity on this environment to implement solutions that improve the climate resilience of the coastal areas. A Coastal Living Lab in which Benidorm is integrated along with nine other European cities and which is included in the SCORE project (Smart Control of the Climate Resilience of European Coastal Cities).

The municipal centre El Torrejó has hosted this afternoon a day of co-creation of this project, endowed with 10 million euros, which will be developed in 12 countries, which has 28 'partners' and in which the University of Alicante actively participate ( UA), and the Engineering area and the Smart Destination Lab Benidorm DTI.

At this conference, the mayors of Beaches and Innovation, Mónica Gómez and Aida García Mayor participated, among others; the SCORE project team; municipal technicians from the Engineering and Smart Destination Lab areas; teachers and students of the UA; personnel from Dinapsis and the concessionaire for comprehensive water management; as well as representatives of Hosbec and AICO and neighbours.

Gómez highlighted that “Benidorm is one of the 10 European cities chosen to test this SCORE project, which aims to design, develop, monitor and validate effective adaptation measures in coastal areas and low-lying areas that allow them to be protected from growing climate risks and also of sea-level variation and coastal flooding.

During the opening of the conference, Gómez explained that "we have joined this SCORE project because it is fully part of our philosophy of climate resilience and we are committed to achieving a mitigation of impacts and that Benidorm continues to be the place of happiness for millions of Spaniards and Europeans who choose us to enjoy their vacations”.

After influencing the sustainability of the urban model and management of the city and the quality and excellence of its beaches, the mayor stated that "being a reference in the study and analysis of action on coastal areas leads us to become more involved in the project, in the confidence that the experiences achieved from Benidorm can be useful to other coastal and tourist destinations on the planet”.

Likewise, he has advanced that “soon” Benidorm “will present its Municipal Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change”, in which “it has been working for a long time” and that arrives “with the maximum update and all the programs that aim at greater resilience”.

As explained during the co-creation day, the SCORE project has an evolution and executing for four years, and its implementation is divided into four phases. In the case of Benidorm, with group work in which the City Council and the UA have participated, the diagnostic phase has already been completed to detect the main problems presented by the city and their impact.

It is now time to begin the phase of identifying the agents involved, study possible solutions in later stages and implement them on a small scale as a preliminary step to establishing definitive solutions that can be applied on a large scale.

The project work team has highlighted the proposed climate resilience solutions that will make up a plan that will be valid beyond the duration of the SCORE project and that each municipality will be able to incorporate into its governance system.

In addition to Benidorm, several European and Spanish cities will also be integrated into the Coastal Living Lab. Among the former are Dublin and the Irish coastal city Sligo, the Portuguese Oeiras, the Polish Gdansk, the Slovenian Piran, the Turkish Samsun, the Italian Massa. In Spain, the pilot will also be launched in Vilanova y la Geltrú, in the province of Barcelona and in Oarsoaldea, which make up the coasts of Errenteria, Lezo, Oiratzun and Pasaia, in Guipúzcoa, Basque Country.