The president of the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (CHE), Carlos Arrazola, explained this Monday that the Decision Support System (SAD) integrated into the Automatic Hydrological Information Systems (SAIH) allows for calculating flows in certain convective episodes "as far as possible."
However, he emphasized that he does not see this mechanism as "useful for anything" in the Júcar basin, since storms in this area "are phenomena that develop in a very short time." "I am going to give a very simple example.
We estimate the water that will pass through Zaragoza in 48 hours, but it is a convective phenomenon like the one that occurred in the Júcar, so it is very difficult to estimate," he pointed out, highlighting the complexity of anticipating episodes like the last dana.
Despite this, he admitted that "surely things can be improved" when asked about the alert system that the Government is tendering for the Júcar basin, although he acknowledged that he does not know the details of this initiative. "Advancing a few hours is a lot. I don't know what it will consist of, for sure," he stated.
At the same time, Arrazola defended the convenience of putting an end to "gray" infrastructures -- such as dams -- that are being executed and, subsequently, "studying other possibilities." In addition, he insisted that defense against flooding requires "a set of actions" and that "not everything should be relied on any of them, nor on the warnings." In this regard, he highlighted the importance of improving the training of the population in the face of extreme meteorological phenomena.