Alicante Reflects on How to Prepare for the Next Disaster, One Year After the Dana

A year is about to pass since the devastating dana that ravaged the province of Valencia. The University of Alicante has decided to turn memory into learning with a conference aimed at analysing the disaster and anticipating future extreme episodes.

The academic institution, through the Socioeconomic Observatory of Floods and Droughts (OBSIS), has organised the conference 'Lessons from the Valencia Disaster of October 2024', which will be held on October 17 at the Alicante Conference Centre.

This is a key meeting that will bring together experts and specialists in climate change, emergencies, and social action with the common goal of understanding what went wrong, what was learned, and, above all, how to prepare for the next major meteorological crisis.

The initiative aims to create an open space for encounter and reflection where science, academic debate, and civic engagement come together to analyse what happened, as phenomena are "increasingly frequent and intense in the Mediterranean as a consequence of climate change," explain sources from the UA.

The event will open at 5 p.m. with a presentation by Dr. Guadalupe Ortiz, a professor at the University of Alicante, who will address the keys and tools to strengthen community resilience against floods. She will be followed by Dr. Henry Steven Rebolledo-Cortés with a lecture focused on the social and humanitarian response to climate emergencies.

The central round table, 'Lessons from the Valencia Disaster', will bring together top-level voices, such as the professor of Climatology at the University of Alicante, Jorge Olcina; the national director of emergencies at the Red Cross, Íñigo Vila; the Aemet delegate, Jorge Tamayo; and the Government Commissioner for the Dana, Zulima Pérez. The event will conclude with final reflections from Dr. Antonio Aledo, professor of Sociology and director of OBSIS.

This meeting is part of the second International Congress of Socio-environmental Studies and seeks not only to review what happened but also to propose new protocols, public policies, and prevention strategies.