Citizen science and co-creation of knowledge to improve resilience to floods

In 2020, the FLOODUP Francolí project was carried out to gather information about the flash flood event that affected the Francolí River (Catalonia, NE Spain) in October 2019. The ultimate goal was to involve the local population in improving resilience to sudden and catastrophic floods, which are relatively frequent in the area. To achieve this, a citizen science experiment was developed in collaboration with various local stakeholders, along with co-creation workshops. One of the campaign’s results was the reconstruction of the social response during the emergency. Its analysis highlighted the need to improve flood preparedness and response, leading to the continuation of the study through a new participatory process developed through the Flood2Now project.

This project also incorporated citizen science, with two main objectives: a real-time river level monitoring through citizen participation and raising awareness of risk perception through the reconstruction of collective memory. The project was carried out in two areas: the Francolí river basin and the Arga river basin in Villaba, Pamplona (N Spain). As part of the participatory activities, participants were invited to share their knowledge of flooding by taking part in co-creation and historical reconstruction workshops adapted to the specific characteristics of each community. Workshops were also held to select river level monitoring points jointly. Once these locations had been defined and validated by the project team’s hydrologists, observation posts were installed to facilitate monitoring. This communication will describe how co-creation process and activities were adapted to the specific characteristics of each territory and community and present the main results obtained. It will also show the differences in the river-community-territory relationships of each pilot and identify the barriers and opportunities for achieving the planned objectives.