Anna Boqué Ciurana
@urv.cat
Postdoctoral Researcher. Geography Department. Faculty of Tourism and Geography
Centre for Climate Change C3. Universitat Rovira i Virgili
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Climate services application for different sectors: tourism, infrastructures, agriculture...
Co-creation of Climate Services
Climate School Assemblies to empower youngsters for Climate Change and sustainability awareness
Wave model and downscaling techniques
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
Jon Xavier Olano Pozo, Òscar Saladié, and Anna Boqué-Ciurana
MDPI AG
This study analyzes temperature trends and thermal comfort during the key hours (i.e., from noon to 3:00 p.m.) of human tower (castells) performances in four significant festivities involving this outdoor exhibition (diada castellera) in Catalonia. Human towers were recognized by UNESCO in 2010 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. The selected exhibitions were Sant Joan in Valls on 24 June; Festa Major de La Bisbal del Penedès on 15 August; Sant Magí in Tarragona on 19 August; and Sant Fèlix in Vilafranca del Penedès on 30 August. Temperature and relative humidity data were downloaded from the Copernicus Climate Change Service’s ERA5-Land and ERA5 pressure level datasets, respectively, with reanalysis from 1951 to 2023. The results revealed a clear upward trend in temperatures over the last several decades in these four places and for the respective dates, from +0.3 °C per decade in La Bisbal del Penedès to +0.42 °C per decade in Valls. Most of the positive temperature anomalies were concentrated in the last 25 years. The calculation of the Heat Index revealed a higher occurrence of years with possible fatigue due to prolonged exposure and/or physical activity in the three inland locations (i.e., Valls, La Bisbal del Penedès, and Vilafranca del Penedès) and a greater frequency of years with possible heat stroke, heat cramps, and/or heat exhaustion in Tarragona, which is near the Mediterranean Sea. This warming trend and increased discomfort pose potential health risks for participants and suggests a need for adaptive measures. These findings emphasize the importance of incorporating climate considerations into human tower planning.
Gisela Cebrián, Anna Boqué, Jon Xavier Olano, and Juan Prieto
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
AbstractThis paper presents school climate assemblies, conceived as an innovative educational tool for the co-creation of climate change and sustainability solutions in educational institutions and communities. It describes an intervention research project that builds on previous processes and experiences of climate citizen assemblies which have been organised in different countries across the world. School climate assemblies are conceived of as a tool that promotes the active engagement of pupils and their communities in co-creating climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies towards jointly defining innovative sustainability and climate change solutions. An intervention, piloted in five secondary schools in the Spanish region of Tarragona, is reported, presenting the main phases and steps followed. To test the effectiveness of the intervention, this paper outlines the policy climate change recommendations that emerged from the co-creation process to identify and agree on a set of actions to tackle climate change and sustainability challenges and the degree of student satisfaction with the intervention. A detailed methodology for organising school climate assemblies that can be replicated in other educational institutions, contexts and regions, is presented, enabling the widespread adoption of this innovative approach. The study emphasises the potential of co-creation methods in the educational context and underscores the critical role of education in fostering sustainability in citizens and empowering students to become active change agents in their local communities. The results lead to policy implications for integrating co-creation approaches into school curricula worldwide, aiming to empower students and drive sustainability action.
Gisela Cebrián Bernat, Álvaro Moraleda, Jon Xavier Olano, Anna Boqué, and Juan Prieto
Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
En las últimas décadas es plausible un creciente reconocimiento sobre la importancia de integrar las competencias en sostenibilidad en los diferentes niveles educativos, aunque hasta la fecha los estudios sobre la educación secundaria son limitados. El objetivo de este estudio descriptivo es explorar la autopercepción del desarrollo de competencias en sostenibilidad del alumnado de educación secundaria y su relación con el género. Se aplicó un cuestionario a 372 estudiantes de 5 institutos de educación secundaria de la provincia de Tarragona. Los resultados muestran un nivel de autopercepción de las competencias en sostenibilidad bueno, aunque existen diferencias significativas entre hombres y mujeres, principalmente en actitudes y comportamientos en sostenibilidad. Este estudio puede informar el diseño de planes de estudio y el desarrollo de estrategias de educación para la sostenibilidad.
Anna Boqué Ciurana, Melisa Ménendez, María Suárez Bilbao, and Enric Aguilar
MDPI AG
Surfing is one of the most popular activities in coastal tourism resorts. However, the sport depends strongly on the met-ocean weather conditions, particularly on the surface wind-generated waves that reach the coast. This study provides examples of how users’ needs and user perspectives are considered by climate data specialists to develop needed, highly useful information addressing human and social needs. In this vein, the climate analysis of such data can provide input on the expected length of a surfing season, according to the surfer’s level of expertise. In addition, other water sports, such as SUP Wave and windsurfing, among others, might be indicated when surfing conditions are not optimal. Finally, the safety of surfers and other tourists who venture into the sea is also dependent on those conditions. We collaborated with the surfing community to define a series of indices for quantifying surfing days (SD), surfing days stratified by surfers’ skills (SDS), alternate offers (AOs), and surfers’ and swimmers’ safety (SuS and SwS). These are of general applications but require wind and wave data at a very fine scale as the input. To illustrate the potential of our indices, we applied them to the Somo beach (Cantabria, Spain). We downscaled a global wave hindcast dataset covering a 30-year period to a spatial resolution of 100 m to obtain wave-surfing information at Somo’s surf spot. The results confirmed Somo’s status as a year-round surf spot, with SD values of 229.5 days/year and monthly values between 22 days/month and 16 days/month. SDS showed different seasonal peaks according to the surfers’ skills. Beginners’ conditions occurred more often in the summer (18.1 days/month in July), intermediate surfers’ conditions appeared in the transitional seasons (14.1 days/month in April), and advanced and big-wave riders in the winter (15.1 days/month in January and 0.7 days/month, respectively). The AO index identified the SUP wave values of 216 days/year. Wind water sports presented values of 141.6 days/year; conversely, SUP sports were possible on only 7.4 days/year. SuS and SwS identified different seasonal hazard values, decreasing from the winter, autumn, and spring to minimum values in the summer.
Alba Font Barnet, Anna Boqué Ciurana, Jon Xavier Olano Pozo, Antonio Russo, Roberto Coscarelli, Loredana Antronico, Francesco De Pascale, Òscar Saladié, Salvador Anton-Clavé, and Enric Aguilar
Elsevier BV
Anna Boqué Ciurana and Enric Aguilar
MDPI AG
This paper extends the work of previous research by investigating surfing practices and surf-recreation companies from a behavioral perspective. The study’s main aim is to gain insights into the role of meteorological/climatological information in decision-making related to the surf-tourism activities market. This information was gathered employing an online survey that asked respondents about where they surf and how they check forecasts for surfing. Climate services (CS) are promoted to support the decision-making process to better prepare for and adapt to the risks and opportunities of climate variability and change. The current market for CS is still in its early stages. In this paper, we report the findings from our recent investigation into the actual and potential market for CS for the Iberian Peninsula surf-tourism sector. Based on surfers’ and surf companies’ demands, it was found that an improved surfing climate service (herein, SCS) will have clear implications in the management of these tourism areas and provide insights into whether surfing activities may be successful. At the same time, such services can help to manage adaptive actions in regard to the impacts of climate change in surfing areas.
Anna Boqué Ciurana and Enric Aguilar
MDPI AG
This study presents, for the first time, a comprehensive characterization of the surf spots around the Iberian Peninsula and provides surfers and stakeholders an evaluation of the expected surfing days per year on each region and spot. The provision of this climate information can help to decision-making and limit the economic and social damages caused by climate-related disasters. This product aligns with the concept of climate services, increasingly requested to help economic activities to achieve optimal performances. We employ use in our study of two sources of data: meteorological buoys (Redcos, Redex and Costeira) and citizen science data, specifically information mined from surfers reanalyzed, namely the information contained in the Glassy app for smartphones (GAC & GAS). The surf spots are characterized using bottom type, surf break type and optimal wind (Owd) and optimal swell direction (Osd). Then, we define a surfing day as the ones in which optimal swell direction and waves bigger than 0.9 m occur; using three parameters mean swell direction (Dmd), significant wave height (Hm0) and optimal swell direction for each surf spot (Osd) and compute the expected frequency of surfing days per year. Once this is done, we attempt to validate the approach taken to characterize a surfing day using buoys parameters (Hm0, Hmax, Tp and Dmd) and information about actual surf sessions for a small subset of our spots (i.e., Costa Tarragona). Our findings confirm that the area of western shore is the best suited for surfing, with over 300 days/year, followed by northern shore (300, 200 days/year) and southern and southeastern shores (<100 days/year). We expect that these values may modestly contribute to a climate-informed planning and management of the surfing activities.