What do the words sand, sun and tornado have in common? Apparently nothing, however last Friday we witnessed, in the Western Algarve, extreme weather phenomena (a tornado) that led to substantial material and personal damage. That's right, the Algarve is not just about sun and beach, it's subject to phenomena like these, namely because of its proximity to the ocean.
The approximately 300 days of sunshine that we experience every year in the Algarve region leave aside 65 days when it rains and a lot. Are we prepared for this type of intense and short-lived phenomenon? Most likely not, because if we travel by car along the Algarve roads and look around, we find streams, streams and ravines completely waterproofed and some even channeled, which in situations of heavy rain, such as that seen in Last Friday, it causes serious material and even personal damage, with the destruction of gardens, roads and bridges or even the loss of human lives.
The cities on the Algarve coast are not prepared for sudden rises in the water level due to heavy rains. It only rains with intensity for half an hour and we witness floods in Faro, Tavira, Portimão and Albufeira.
This lack of preparation, in my opinion, is due to two factors: first, the urban proliferation over the flood beds and often over the riverbed itself (as in Albufeira downtown or the salt marsh area in Portimão), in second to the lack of drainage conditions in these same areas.
These two factors together lead, of course, to large losses and not even the worst examples, such as the case of Madeira in 2010, make policy makers understand that a territory's water system is highly dynamic and its channeling is completely irresponsible. or waterproofing.
In conclusion, extreme weather phenomena such as heavy rains or even tornadoes, like the one that devastated Lagoa and Silves last Friday, cannot be predicted, but the devastating effects that these phenomena cause can certainly be minimized with the application territorial management policies, which do not only focus on the physical component of planning, but which introduce the strategic component, with the incorporation of scenarios of this type, making even the response to these situations much more efficient.
Author Tiago Águas has a degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Algarve
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