Line of action:

Urban environments

Status:

En ejecución

Location:

Collado Villalba, Madrid (Community of Madrid)

Execution date:

2022

Duration:

04/07/2022-31/12/2025

The Guadarrama River and the Arroyo de la Poveda as it passes through Collado Villalba have suffered a process of gradual deterioration over the last few decades as a result of the pressures to which they are subjected. As it passes through the municipality, both courses are channeled with vertical concrete walls. As a consequence, the river and stream have lost their functionality and are not integrated at a landscape or social level. Among the main negative effects derived from these pressures are the constriction and rigidization (channelization) of the river space, the simplification of fluvial dynamism, the reduction of longitudinal and transverse connectivity, the decrease in the quantity and quality of aquatic and riparian habitats, the structural and functional impoverishment of riparian plant formations, the alteration of fish populations and other biological groups of an aquatic nature, the reduction of the perceptual and scenic quality of the river and the stream, the loss of river landscape and ecosystem services and the limitation of recreational uses historically linked to the Guadarrama River. There is a clear and urgent need to recover this channelled section, making a certain degree of naturalness and ecological value compatible with the urban context of the environment. On a social level, the integration of the river into the city is intended through the recovery of the environmental and social quality of the river and its stream and its backbone role within the municipality. On an ecological level, its environmental improvement as a river ecosystem and ecological corridor is urgent, and specifically the recovery of riverside formations. Both sections are part of the SAC ES3110005 “Guadarrama Basin”, and the project plans to contribute to the improvement of some types of Habitats of Community Interest for which the Protected Area was included in the Natura 2000 Network.

In recent years, this urban river space has been subjected to forceful projects that have led to the alteration and simplification of its natural morphology, its channelling, and a strong ecological transformation that has led to the suppression of most of its habitats.

The project proposes an intervention for the elimination of structures and elements that physically and ecologically denature the river space and the reconstruction of an ecosystem mosaic that allows consolidating a more natural landscape and recovering the social value of the area.

This project proposes the development of the Municipal Strategy for the increase of biodiversity, the improvement of environmental sustainability, and adaptation to climate change “Plan BioSOS-Collado Villalba”. The drafting and execution of the executive project “Renaturalization of the Guadarrama river and Poveda stream as it passes through the municipality of Collado Villalba” is also contemplated, among other actions.