In a survey carried out by the ULL within the framework of the LIFE Garachico program, the working population of the municipality is "concerned" about the damage caused by this phenomenon and in general believes that the houses are better prepared than the local businesses.
The northern municipality of Garachico has accepted that it will have to live sine die with adverse coastal phenomena such as strong waves or flooding caused by the sea the leva. This is clear from a survey carried out by the University of La Laguna within the scope of the LIFE Garachico project, which seeks to develop a methodological framework to adapt to the effects of climate change with citizen participation. While 94% believe that the situation in the area will not change, 87% of the people surveyed have acknowledged that they should worry "both in the short and long term", since they have previous negative experiences, either because they have been affected by waves (23%), storms (16%) or floods derived from adverse coastal phenomena (12%). The difficulties are manifested mainly in the influx of road traffic, with a 50% condition, and in the alteration of work and educational activity, with a 21%.
Precisely, the issues related to socioeconomic development are those that cause the most concern, since on many occasions local businesses have been affected by the storm. In this sense, it is observed that Garachiquenses think that their homes are better prepared for adverse coastal phenomena than businesses (73%), which shows that there is still a long way to go in this matter.
Among the solutions provided by citizens, it is advocated adopting a coastal flood risk alert system and, secondly, carrying out works that modify the promenade and parking areas. In this sense, a 79% of the population is predisposed to undertake the necessary works to be able to reverse this situation, especially the inhabitants of Casco, El Muelle and Santo Domingo. The population surveyed also believes that some solutions on a personal level involve parking their vehicles far from the coastal zone or paying more attention to the notices. In terms of communication, the population points out that both the traditional media and social networks (RRSS) are useful when it comes to informing themselves about episodes of sea the leva. Although the 41% of the residents do not feel sufficiently informed about the meteorological events that affect the municipality, and many neighbors demand specific information about the procedure during these episodes of coastal flood. For all these reasons, LIFE Garachico proposes improvements in information management and the need to generate channels to reach specific segments of the citizenry, such as the younger population that claims to be less knowledgeable about the situation. Knowledge of these data is of the utmost importance for the consortium of eleven partners working on this project led by the Vice-Ministry for the Fight against Climate Change and Ecological Transition of the Government of the Canary Islands. These field work actions are the prelude to fulfilling the objective of putting into practice, testing, evaluating and disseminating methodologies and new and innovative participatory approaches that include the municipal population within the context of protecting urban areas against risk. of coastal flooding, and in the development of a flexible adaptation strategy for these areas in the face of climate change. LIFE Garachico, which has an execution budget of 2,638,132 euros, has 55% funding from the European Union.
