The mayor of Lisbon (CML) presented at the beginning of this Monday evening the new Sensor System for Monitoring and Early Warning of floods in Lisbon. Carlos Moedas watched the installation of a sensor in Alcântara, one of the most sensitive areas affected by intense rainfall and flooding, the last of ten in the first phase of the project that are already spread across eight areas of the city
The new system is integrated into the municipality’s risk monitoring and prevention program, through the Municipal Civil Protection Service and the Sanitation Department.
These sensors, along with other flow sensors to be installed in pipelines, will, according to those responsible for the municipality, “allow real-time monitoring and allow the early detection of phenomena with a potential risk of human and material damage caused by floods”. Thus allowing “better management of means of prevention and faster activation of means of assistance”.
At the end of February and beginning of this month, sensors were already installed in the tunnels on Av. João XXI (two flood sensors), Entrecampos (one flood sensor), Campo Pequeno (one flood sensor), Campo Grande (two flood sensors) and Batista Russo (one flood sensor). At the same time, a sensor was installed in Rua da Palma, next to Martim Moniz (a flow sensor), Rua Dom Duarte, next to Martim Moniz, in front of Hotel Mundial (a flood sensor) and this Monday it was installed in Rua from Fábrica da Pólvora, near Rua da Cascalheira, in Alcântara (a flood sensor).
Possible expansion to the whole city
“Our objective is to test this pilot system and, if everything works out as planned, we will go ahead and expand the sensor network to the entire city, creating more and more predictive models that can help us to mitigate risks as early as possible, protecting people and goods”, Carlos Moedas told PÚBLICO.
The president of CML recalls that “Alcântara is one of the most sensitive and critical areas for flooding whenever there are heavy rainfall phenomena”. “This is how we finished the first phase of installing these sensors in the areas defined as priority in this parish. Alcântara thus joins Martim Moniz and the great tunnels of the city. All of them are now equipped with this security system at the service of Civil Protection and the entire emergency system of the city”, he stressed.
Carlos Moedas also says that his priority can only be one: “Investing in everything that is fundamental and structural to guarantee the safety of the city and its inhabitants. I took it for granted, from the very beginning, and there was no need to wait for the consequences of the torrential rains at the end of last year, that Lisbon had to move forward once and for all, and without further hesitation, towards the construction of the General Drainage Plan ” from Lisbon (PGDL)
A complex and time-consuming work that, according to Moedas, obliges him to “continue to seek to mitigate all risks while it is not completed and operational”.
“In this sense, the CML is also acting, in partnership with LNEC, in an inspection operation of the large collectors in Lisbon to act preventively in the rehabilitation of the network (maintenance and protection of the collectors)”, he concluded.
The Metropolitan Area of Lisbon has been affected by floods over the years, especially in the municipalities of Lisbon, Loures and Oeiras. These municipalities were again heavily affected on the 7th, 8th, 13th and 14th of December last year, with several places flooded after heavy rains that caused damages of several million euros and damage to roads, shops, houses and dozens of people displaced.
In Lisbon alone, Carlos Moedas estimated that the floods in the municipality caused damage worth 49 million euros – 34 million euros correspond to damage to equipment and public infrastructure in the city and the remaining 15 million euros to damage to economic activities, commerce and services and private housing. The municipality announced support of around three million euros for families and economic activities