2.3.3. Barcelona

Located on the northeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula facing the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is the capital city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. The city is situated on a plain spanning and is bordered by the mountain range of Collserola, the Llobregat river in the southwest and the Besòs river in the north. Barcelona is the second most populous municipality within Spain. However, the population increased slowly but steadily until the 1970's, when the city reached its maximum population, thereafter, it stabilized and even decreased at the beginning of the 21st century, reaching the average population of 1.6 million inhabitants. Barcelona's physical expansion has been limited by the mountains and the sea, resulting in a relatively high population density, among the highest in Europe. Within this context, Barcelona's major vulnerabilities are mainly attributable to the natural and environmental threats faced by the wider Catalonia region. Barcelona's past and recent history has been punctuated with recurrent water crises but also with rainfall events with very strong intensity over short time frames. The most severe and recent disruptive event hitting the urban area was between 2004 and 2008. During that period, four years of scarce precipitation in the Llobregat and Ter rivers' headwaters, coupled with an increased evaporation rate due to high temperatures,

culminated in the Spring 2008 water crisis affecting over 5.5 million people in the broader Catalonia. In that context, the Regional Government had to adopt exceptional procedures to minimise water waste, while the City of Barcelona was simultaneously forced to introduce restrictive measures over water use. Since then, several structural measures to ensure water supply have been implemented [29]. In January 2018, the city declared the pre-alert level of the Drought protocol after three consecutive years of low rainfall. The city is affected every year by an average of three intense rainfall events and one extreme flooding event every five years, although these frequencies have been increasing in the last years. Barcelona also has records of one heat wave every four years, a trend that has been increasing notably in the latest years. In 2003, a heatwave that lasted 13 days increased in more than 40% the average mortality. The last heat wave event was in summer 2018, it was 7 days long and caused up to 10 direct deaths. The resilience of the city to climate change can be highly related to its urban services' resilience, their interdependencies and cascade effects. The Barcelona Municipality has already developed an intensive work towards resilience, and it is proactively committed to increase Barcelona's resilience: from social exclusion to economic stresses, flooding, drought and heat waves. For Barcelona, the resilience assessment was carried-out for flooding, combined sewer overflows, drought and heat waves, considering the variables related to rainfall, sea level and temperature.

#### 2.3.4. Lisbon

Located on the northern bank of the Tagus River's estuary, one of the 18 municipalities of the biggest Portuguese metropolitan area, Lisbon is the capital of Portugal and the second largest European port on the Atlantic Ocean. The city has a Mediterranean Climate (Csa), characterised by dry and hot summers and wet and fresh winter periods with a relatively low precipitation rate compared to other Portuguese cities. Lisbon Metropolitan Area, with a population of 2.8 million inhabitants, stretches on both sides of the Tagus River, contributing to 37% of the national economic output. Today, Lisbon is a complex system with more than 1.0 million citizens who live, work, study, circulate and visit the city, Portuguese in the majority, with different ages, cultures, religions, ethnicities, education levels, knowledge and languages. Based on the analyses conducted by both local public stakeholders and international actors working on resilience in Lisbon, one of the urban challenges is related to a combination of contextual environmental, emergency, civil protection and urban planning threats with the contingent impacts of climate change crisis [29]. Since 1950, about 43 relevant events of extreme weather occurred in Lisbon. From these, nine events were related to hot weather, including heat waves, with a maximum temperature of 42 ◦C recorded in August of 2003, 13 events related to cold weather, including cold waves, with a minimum temperature of −1.2 ◦C recorded in February 1956, two strong wind and gusts events, with a maximum wind velocity of 108.4 km/h, recorded in January 2014 and 10 rainfall-induced flood events, with a maximum return period of 500 years, recorded in November 1983. The resilience of the city to climate change can be highly related to its urban services' resilience, their interdependencies and cascade effects. Lisbon Municipality has already developed an intensive work towards resilience, and it is proactively committed to increase the resilience of the city: from social exclusion to economic stresses and from seismic shocks to flooding, combined with 17 Sustainable Development Goals' achievement. For Lisbon, the resilience assessment was undertaken for the flooding hazard, related to rainfall and sea level variables.

#### **3. Results**

#### *3.1. Bristol*

The RAF was applied in Bristol in order to assess the current level of city resilience to flooding. Some results are presented in Figure 3. This could then subsequently identify where the gaps lie and what particular aspects are lacking to help formulate plans to improve or enhance upon the existing status, based on this resilience diagnosis. It went into a great level of detail investigating many aspects of city resilience quite thoroughly. The overall resilience development in the city was deemed as

advanced in nearly half of the aspects assessed (Figure 3a). In this same respect, around a quarter were shown as progressing and the remainder incipient, unanswerable or not applicable. Various city services were given consideration including storm water, wastewater, energy, mobility and solid waste management operations.

The analysis highlighted the advancement in organisational areas more so over physical areas (Figure 3b), which were deemed more absent. Infrastructure resilience to climate change is therefore the main concern on reflection of this. In their own respect, the individual services seem resilient to a point, due to a focus on building resilience to historical events in the city and in response to national flood-risk issues. There is, however, susceptibility in the realms of reliance upon inter-related services and a lack of understanding of the cascading impacts and interdependencies between them.

The results from the analysis highlight the coordination between governmental organisations that is not always experienced to the same level externally with all privately run organisations. Engagement with communities is also a dynamic that is not completely to its maximum sufficiency. Availability of service resources is good, since diverse energy sources are used in the city, but the reliance on electricity without alternative provisions is a notable limitation (Figure 3c). Resilience standards to adhere to as well as the position of a Chief Resilience Officer being eliminated make for more areas lacking in Bristol. Learning from past events is a commendable action performed well in Bristol, but the running of emergency scenarios and drills does not appear to be simulated enough to gain its full benefit (Figure 3d). The known threats of a significant proportion from sea level rise and increased rainfall present an extreme level of vulnerability to the city and its inhabitants. There are, however, also opportunities presented, though through the declaration of a climate emergency in Bristol, they require drastic action implemented via a climate strategy. The chance for properly applying climate adaptation measures utilising the knowledge developed of high-risk areas in the city therefore has greater prospect for recognition and the enablement for realisation.
