Maria J. Telhado

• Master of Science
• Head Prevention Divison at Câmara Municipal Lisboa

Urban areas are dynamic, complex, and vulnerable systems involving multiple strategic services such as water supply, wastewater, and stormwater and waste management. Climate-change trends may directly affect the urban water cycle, through heavy rainfall, tides, and droughts, potentially causing cascading impacts with serious consequences for people...

Cities face a growing set of complex interdependent challenges. Increasing urban populations, ageing infrastructure, and uncertainties regarding the scale and manifestation of variety of contemporary challenges all highlight the increasing pressures facing decision makers to make substantial change. The influence of City Hall to convene, engage and...

Climate trends suggest an increase in the frequency of intense rainfall events and the aggravation of existing conditions in terms of flooding in urban areas. In coastal areas, conditions are aggravated by coexistence with coastal overtopping. Flood risk control is complex, and the interdependencies among the services and sectors in urban areas imp...

According to the United Nations, by 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in cities, and 70% by 2050. Both consolidated and fast urbanizing areas face diverse acute shocks from natural disasters and long-term stresses, such as the effects of climate change. Therefore, there is a need for cities to implement plans for increasing resilience a...

Urban environments are challenged with unprecedented anthropogenic and natural pressures, the latter being accelerated by the growing awareness of the consequences of climate change. The concept of urban resilience has been growing in response, since it allows us to understand city behaviour as a system of systems, improving its response to extreme...

Urban areas are dynamic, facing evolving hazards, having interacting strategic services and assets. Their management involves multiple stakeholders bringing additional complexity. Potential impacts of climate dynamics may aggravate current conditions and the appearance of new hazards. These challenges require an integrated and forward-looking appro...

The effects of climate dynamics on urban areas involve the aggravation of existing conditions and the potential for emergence of new hazards or risk factors. Floods are recognized as a leading source of consequences to society, including disruption of critical functions in urban areas, and to the environment. Consideration of the interplay between...

Climate change (CC) challenges require an integrated approach to increase cities’ resilience. Interactions of urban water systems with other urban systems and services are essential to city resilience. Risk identification related to CC for strategic urban services is an essential task for planning resilience in cities. Developments for Lisbon city...

The Tagus estuary is bordered by the largest metropolitan area in Portugal, the Lisbon capital city council. It has suffered the impact of several major tsunamis in the past, as shown by a recent revision of the catalogue of tsunamis that struck the Portuguese coast over the past two millennia. Hence, the exposure of populations and infrastructure...

The urban water cycle (UWC) often involves several stakeholders managing specific systems of the cycle such as water supply, wastewater and stormwater systems and water bodies. Risk management in the UWC can benefit from an integrated approach. The water cycle safety planning (WCSP) framework was developed and demonstrated in Lisbon, within the FP7...

The Tagus estuary is recognized as an exposed location to tsunami occurrences, given its proximity to tsunamigenic faults such as the Marquês de Pombal and the Horseshoe fault system. Lisbon, bordered by the Tagus estuary, is a critical point of Portugal’s tsunami hazard map, having been affected by several tsunamis (Baptista and Miranda, 2009) inc...

A revision of the catalogue of tsunamis known to have struck the Portuguese coast has shown that the Tagus estuary has been affected by several major tsunamis over the past two millennia. Bordered by the largest metropolitan area in Portugal, Tagus estuary is one of the most worrisome locations in what concerns safety of populations and potential m...

Several major tsunamis are known to have struck the Portuguese coast over the past millennia (Baptista and Miranda, 2009). The Tagus estuary has great exposure to tsunami occurrences and, being bordered by the largest metropolitan area in the country, is a particularly worrisome location in what concerns safety of populations and economic losses du...

The current work describes and evaluates an early warning system for meteorological risk in Lisbon that has been functioning in SMPC since February 2008. The system aims to integrate multiple sources of information and facilitate cross checking observations, forecasts and warnings, allowing for an efficient and timely evaluation of the alert level...