Water resources and climate change in the Pyrenees
The PIRAGUA project is harnessing transboundary cooperation to characterise the water cycle across the Pyrenees in the context of climate change. It will synthesise and harmonise existing data to develop forward scenarios, develop indicators and put forward strategies for adaptation on the scale of the region, the end-purpose being to support initiatives for adapting resource management to climate change.
The project goals are:
- to characterise water resources and recent changes and assess future resources,
- to identify and promote strategies to adapt to climate change,
- to distribute knowledge on climate change impacts.
An overall study and 7 case studies
PIRAGUA will study the water cycle and water resources in the Pyrenees over the recent period from 1985 to 2015 and assess future trends from 2030 to 2050.
The project will also undertake seven case studies on local and regional adaptation strategies in different social and economic sectors.
PIRAGUA will involve local and regional players and water basin agencies, to ensure that the project results will benefit the area as a whole.
A project coordinated by the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory under the POCTEFA programme
The Interreg V-A programme for Spain, France and Andorra (POCTEFA) is a European transboundary cooperation programme established to promote sustainable development in the border areas of the three countries.
The POCTEFA programme area, which is structured by the Pyrenean range that extends from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, is potentially highly vulnerable to climate change. This transboundary region contains the main water resources of the POCTEFA area, feeding its waters into the rivers and recharge zones of the region's main catchment basins and aquifers.
The Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC) is the fruit of a regional transboundary cooperation initiative on climate change launched in 2010 by the Pyrenees Working Community (CTP). The aims are to monitor and better understand climate change in the Pyrenees to help the region to adapt to its impacts, and to become the reference platform for knowledge on climate change adaptation in mountain ecosystems.
