The floods have affected Terrassa on multiple occasions, with those of 1962 being one of the most catastrophic recorded in Spain (it is estimated that they caused between 600 and 1,000 fatalities).
In this case, Argos City has been implemented in Terrassa (Vallès Occidental, Catalonia) to monitor, alert and help in the management of possible emergencies to various critical elements located in flooded areas, mainly the Palau stream and the torrent of Vallparadís.
For the anticipation of potentially dangerous situations in reference to floods that may impact the critical elements in this case is used:
- Official warnings from different bodies: Dangerous Meteorological Situation (SMP) of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC), Adverse Meteorological Phenomena (FMA) of the National Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
- Own sensors and from different bodies: Automatic weather stations from Terrassa City Council, the SMC and the AEMET.
- European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
- Products for short-term rain forecasting (nowcasting) and for impact due to occasional rainfall (exceeding drainage capacity) and aggregate rainfall (growth of torrents and streams), based on radar information using the radar data of the SMC) using algorithms from the Center for Applied Research in Hydrometeorology of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (CRAHI-UPC).
- Real-time traffic incidents and cameras of the Catalan traffic service.
In a second phase, the system will be expanded to also cover emergencies related to wind and heat waves. With this implementation, we add the 218,000 inhabitants of Terrassa to the number of inhabitants covered by Argos City!