Lisbon, Feb. 27, 2026 (Lusa) - An expert in disasters and environmental risks believes that the recent storms in Portugal could not have been prevented, but the effects of extreme weather events could have been minimised by finding another way to occupy and “use the land”.

"We couldn't avoid it because what is happening in Portugal, and in many other areas of the planet, as we have seen in recent days, with the very heavy snowstorm in the United States and the very intense rains in Brazil, are phenomena that have to do with something we have been talking about for a very long time, which is the effect of global warming," said Maria José Roxo.

Speaking to Lusa, the professor from the Department of Geography and Regional Planning at Universidade Nova de Lisboa analysed the effects of the recent Kristin, Leonardo and Marta storms, which since the early hours of 28 January have caused at least 18 deaths, hundreds of injuries and displaced people, mainly in the Central, Lisbon and Tagus Valley and Alentejo regions.

The researcher at Nova's Interdisciplinary Centre for Social Sciences (CICS) pointed out that Portugal has a particularly variable climate, with Mediterranean and Atlantic characteristics, which "has been disrupted by global warming," making storms and frontal systems increasingly intense.

"We couldn't avoid it, but we could minimise its effects. And this is where we have to focus. This minimisation involved what has long been debated about how the territory is being occupied and used, and that is the serious problem," she pointed out.

The problem, she stressed, lies in the way natural resources are used, disrupting the dynamics of natural systems, with the channelling of watercourses in urban areas and the use of "soil resources", with the waterproofing of urban areas.

"Thinking about cities means thinking about cities with nature. Cities have to be sponge cities that absorb water, as seen in the example of Setúbal, with its retention basin, and all these aspects of more greenery in cities, more absorption spaces, less waterproofing," she argued, alluding to the example of the city's urban park next to the Sado River, which cushioned the recent floods.

The specialist in desertification, disasters and environmental risks, natural resources and geomorphology, giving the example of areas in cities for planting trees, noted that in many places "they are minimal, often even waterproofed," making it difficult to understand how "trees survive."

"This question of how we plan has to be properly addressed, because we need to think differently" and include an integrated approach, argued Maria José Roxo, adding that we cannot only think about the soil, but also about vegetation cover and water, three elements that "must always be associated".

In the central region, droughts, fires, high temperatures and, suddenly, a "brutal downpour of water that had huge consequences due to negligence, carelessness, not thinking," gives the idea that people "get used to a region" and occupy floodplains and steep slopes in unstable geologies that will cause landslides, she noted.

"So, there is a way of using the territory and then, suddenly, these storms come, all this water comes, which obviously has to use its natural paths and, obviously, the infrastructure built by human beings is destroyed," she stressed.

Therefore, for the future, Maria José Roxo pointed out that the existing legislation "is good" in determining that construction should not take place on floodplains, cliffs and steep slopes, but then you see "so many buildings that do not comply with the legislation".

On the other hand, she continued, these "storms have a positive side", which is to provide "water resources", and retention basins should be built, sediments should be cleared so that dams can accumulate more water, with "increased care taken over soil conservation practices and techniques in agriculture".

"This is something that farmers know, many of them already do, but we need to do much more, because we need to conserve soil, because if we conserve soil, we conserve water, we conserve biodiversity," she added.

The CICS researcher also recommended that, for "all measures to conserve watercourses, conserve and reforest burnt land", there should not be "so much bureaucracy that prevents things from being done more quickly".

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