Line of action:

Drivers of biodiversity loss

Status:

En ejecución

Execution date:

2023

Total budget:

199.235,52 €

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

139.464,86 €

The current water management model requires a new approach that starts working hand in hand with nature. Among the tools to achieve this, Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated Water Management (NBNIWM) stand out, as they are tools for adapting to climate change, generate numerous ecosystem services and increase biodiversity.

In our country there are numerous ancestral, operational and unknown SbNGIAs that, if recovered, could contribute to significantly increase our water regulation capacity.

The general objective of this project is to inventory, characterize and recover in our country different ancestral water management techniques, known as Sowing and Harvesting of Water (SyCA) systems, since they are examples of Nature-Based Solutions for Integrated Water Management (SbNGIA). The project has these specific goals:

• Inventory the historical techniques of SbNGIA, known as SyCA systems, in the framework of peninsular Spain.
• Hydrological, hydrogeological and ecosystemic characterization of selected cases of operational SyCA in Sierra Nevada (Granada), La Vera (Cáceres) and La Valduerna (León).
• Identification of potentially recoverable SyCA areas, development of restoration and reactivation proposals and elaboration of management recommendations.
• Dissemination of results, transmission of local ecological knowledge and development of policy recommendations and proposals for sustainable planning and management.

• Bibliographic and documentary review.
• Analysis of historical cartography, aerial photographs and satellite images.
• Surveys of the population and local institutions.
• Preparation of participatory maps with the local population.
• Toponymic research to identify Siembra y Cosecha de Agua (SyCA) infrastructures.
• Conducted semi-structured ethnographic interviews with key informants on historical water management.
• Field reconnaissance and documentation of some of the selected areas.
• Creation and dumping of the information in a geo-referenced database and preparation of a GIS of ancestral SyCA systems in peninsular Spain.
• Elaboration of thematic cartographies.
• Compilation and analysis of previous results of the research carried out between 2021 and 2023 in the Bérchules, Alhorí and Mecina river basins.
• Hydrological control during one year, with a monthly cadence of measurements of piezometry and hydrometry in the three main dams of the Duerna/Peces system, in León.
• Development and exploitation of a groundwater flow model of the interfluvial aquifer between the Duerna and Peces rivers.
• Design of a hydrological control network and installation of sensors in fisheries and at different points of the San Gregorio stream, in Aldeanueva de la Vera (Cáceres).
• Hydrological control during one year, with a monthly measurement cadence, of the hydrometry in the main fisheries and in the San Gregorio stream.
• Synthesis of the hydrological, hydrogeological and ecosystem characterization of the selected SyCA cases and preparation of a report.
• Collection of hydrogeological information from areas identified as historical SyCA systems and input into the geo-referenced database and GIS.
• Basic hydrogeological characterization of favorable areas where groundwater recharge could be increased through SyCA systems.
• Evaluation of the potential of abandoned systems listed for recovery and reactivation as SbNGIA.
• Thematic mapping of potentially recoverable systems.
• Development of proposals for restoration and reactivation of the proposed SyCA systems.
• Development of management recommendations for the proposed SyCA systems.
• Preparation of impact articles on:
  • 1) classification and mapping of SyCA zones
  • 2) the regulating capacity of the irrigation ditches
  • 3) the SyCA system of the zayas de la Valduerna and its potential replication.
  • 4) the SyCA system of the fisheries of La Vera
  • 5) the different SyCA systems in operation and the potentially recoverable areas for the application of SbNGIA in our country.
• Dissemination and communication of the project.