The vice president of the Government, Laura Vilagrà, has presented the map of the census of asbestos roofs in Catalonia. A graphic and interactive tool, developed by the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC), that will allow progress in the actions of the National Plan for the eradication of asbestos 2023-2024. For Vilagrà, with the creation of this map “a step forward is taken” to achieve one of the “country’s challenges” and an “absolute priority of the Government.” For the vice president, the presence of asbestos “has a triple impact on the lives of citizens: it affects public, occupational and environmental health.”
“For this reason, we must move from good words to action,” said the vice president. And she has called on all actors involved to stand up to it. Likewise, it has made a display of some of the most relevant data that could be extracted from this diagnosis, such as, for example, that of the 947 municipalities that exist in Catalonia, in almost 100%, some 945 municipalities, s have been detected. some type of presence, either on the roofs or in other parts of the buildings. “These data imply that there are 122,460 roofs with fiber cement, which represent a total area of ??almost 40 km2 and a weight of about 700,000 tons,” she explained.
Regarding distribution, if we focus on the number of tons, the city of Barcelona occupies first place, with 17,716.01 tons, Terrassa with 11,285.32 tons, Sabadell with 10,934.55 tons, Lleida with 9,317, 93 tons and Manresa with 7,763.54 tons. And if the number of inhabitants per ton is taken as a reference, the first place is occupied by Foradada with 7,492 kg/per capita, Oliola with 5,618.8 kg/per capita, Ivorra with 4,653.5 kg/per capita, Abella de la Conca with 4,312.4 kg/per capita and Sora with 4,024.9 kg/per capita.
For his part, the Minister of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, David Mascort, has highlighted the enormous work not only to detect the asbestos present in the country, but also to support individuals, companies, associations and town councils for its removal, while progress is made in renewable generation with a specific line of aid endowed with 32 million euros that is added to the 18 million euros of the already existing line for the removal of this material in urban buildings: “The strategy for the eradication asbestos is another example of this Government’s transformative environmental policies. For the first time we made a call for the removal of asbestos for industrial activities outside urban centers with a special focus on the rural world, and not only that, it was proposed to replace the covers of this polluting and harmful material with health-related plates. that will generate clean energy, energy that will allow us to move towards the most electrified country with fewer emissions,” he explained.
A shock plan against asbestos
The Department of the Presidency commissioned the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC), in 2022, to prepare a cartography that would delimit those roofs in height that could contain fiber cement. At the same time, the request also included creating a computer application that would have this first layer of information, with the purpose of being able to view it and export its results.
From September 2022 to December 2023, the ICGC has obtained the data from coverage flights with hyperspectral sensors, and subsequently processed it to identify its composition and georeference it. In other words, through remote sensing, a database has been created with the geometries that delimit the roofs that may contain fiber cement in Catalonia. In addition, tools have also been developed for internal use for the monitoring, management and coordination of the project both by the technicians involved (GIS tool) and at the management level through a viewer that offers detailed information at the roof level.
For his part, the Secretary of the Government, Xavier Bernadí, highlighted that “the Government has promoted the asbestos eradication policy accompanied by local governments, social agents and civil entities and associations of those affected by asbestos.” Likewise, has highlighted “two pioneering initiatives throughout the world”, such as the preparation of the map of fiber cement roofs of the entire Catalan territory, as well as the Bill for the eradication of asbestos in Catalonia, which is expected to be approved by the Government. next Tuesday, May 7th.
Likewise, the director of the ICGC has highlighted “the value of the Institute taking on the challenge, the result of which places us as pioneers worldwide. The knowledge and experience of the Institute, combined with artificial intelligence techniques, has made it possible not only to generate the census of fiber cement roofs but also the tools that will allow the management and coordination of the eradication of asbestos in our country.
Regarding the technical characteristics of the viewer, it allows you to activate the themed visualization of the roofs by administrative unit (municipalities or census sections depending on the zoom level), consult the number of roofs with fiber cement detected and regarding the visualization by administrative unit It can be disabled or made transparent to directly see the identified covers.
In this sense, thanks to the ICGC’s experience in the processing of geoinformation, the interactive tool allows you to see the current state in Catalonia and advance the actions of the National Plan for the eradication of asbestos in Catalonia to achieve the objective of eliminating asbestos from all public buildings in 2028 and the entire territory in 2032, as established by European regulations.
