The rock on which Salobreña Castle stands was included in the Riskcoast programme, (University of Granada) as part of the geological risk assessment of the Costa Tropical.
This project is part of a wider programme, Interreg Sudoe 2014-2020, with a budget of 1.4-millon euros in which universities, institutes and private companies participate in order to develop techniques to study land displacement with satellite images and photometry using drones in order to create 3D models.
Just a quick aside on Photometry: it is the science of the measurement of light, in terms of its perceived brightness to the human eye. The human eye is not equally sensitive to all wavelengths of visible light. Photometry attempts to account for this by weighting the measured power at each wavelength with a factor that represents how sensitive the eye is at that wavelength.
Back to the article… these are tools used to measure the effects of climate change on land slips and subsidences (sinkholes) caused by excessive exploitation of water tables during droughts. It also takes in soil loss in floods and erosion of sand mass along the coast.
Not only is Salobreña rock being examined, but also the Punta de La Mona, Carmenes del Mar and even the A-7 where it passes over the Rules Reservoir.
As for Salobreña, back in June this year there was a large rockfall in the Paseo de Las Flores area. Experts from RiskCoast had already studied the health of the rock beneath the old town and even predicted fracturing under the castle and consequent rockfalls, which later occurred in June. In fact, it was thanks to this warning that the area had been cordoned off so that nobody was hurt when a large boulder did come down (see photo).
In short, the studies determine the likelihood of further rockfalls and in what time frame they could occur. One solution would be to erect a sturdy mesh on the rock face, which can be seen on some road cuttings, especially in Otívar where there was a high risk of a rockfall just in front of the Restaurante Buena Vista.
(News: Salobreña, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)
Two thousand years ago, when most of those villages on steep hills were built, those steep hills were pretty good house insurance against aggressors, pirates, etc. But of course, times they are a changing.
Hmm. All of these villages that exist on steep hills. All look very precarious to me.
Good luck with house insurance. !!