The LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project, which is supported by the European Union’s LIFE financial instrument, has reached its meridian with a milestone: having already implemented actions and works for flood risk mitigation and adaptation at all the points defined in the two intervention sections of this project, the Alfaro (La Rioja) – Castejón (Navarra) and Osera de Ebro – Fuentes de Ebro (Zaragoza) sections.
In addition, it has become, within the EU LIFE program, a benchmark in terms of coordination between the Project’s partner administrations and in terms of the commitment to real social participation actions, with the involvement of stakeholders, among other forums, in a group for conflict transformation, which brings together those affected, sectors involved and administrations. Also noteworthy are the social capacity building actions to generate a more educated and prepared society in the face of floods.
In addition, Ebro Resilience will collaborate in the replication of the Project’s actions in other sections of the middle Ebro and in other Spanish and European basins with similar problems of high flood recurrence.
On November 7, at the halfway point of its development, the Project held a balance act in the riverside town of Fuentes de Ebro (Zaragoza), with the participation of institutional representatives of its partners, together with municipal representatives of the territories of intervention and of all the sectors interested and at stake in the Ebro riverside, which are also integrated in the different spaces of participation of the project (general population, primary sector, educational sector, academic sector, associations, affected people, secondary sector, services…).
The event was attended, among others, by the Minister of Environment and Tourism of the Government of Aragon, Manuel Blasco; the Deputy Director General of Water Protection and Risk Management, Javier Sanchez; the Director General of Natural Environment and Landscape, Ignacio Saénz de Urturi and the Director General of Environmental Quality. Climate Change and Water, José María Infante both from the Government of La Rioja; the general director of Environment of the Department of Rural Development and Environment of the Government of Navarra, Ana Bretaña; the president of the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation, Carlos Arrazola; the director of the Aragonese Water Institute, Luís Estaún; the managing director of Environmental Management of Navarra, Itziar Gómez.
LIFE project data and status
LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 was approved by the European Commission with a budget of 13,310,350 €, 55% European funding and a term of execution until 2027.
It is an innovative proposal to address the phenomenon of flooding in the middle stretch of the Ebro, with a new management approach that moves from confrontation with the river to a fluvial model based on adaptation.
Its objective is that the population and economic activities coexist with an Ebro in a good state of conservation without the inevitable floods causing significant damage.
In total, 60 hectares will be recovered as river space, of which 20 hectares will be converted into river forest.
To make the middle stretch of the Ebro more resilient to flooding, two intervention zones have been defined, Alfaro-Castejón, with actions to recover space for the river and solutions based on nature, and Osera de Ebro – Fuentes de Ebro, with a novel proposal to make an intensively cultivated agricultural area compatible with the passage of floods.
And all of it:
- With the involvement of the population as a transversal axis of the actions and an inseparable part of flood management.
- Strengthening the social capacities of local administrations in the intervention zones, key sectors and the population in general, creating collaboration networks and increasing knowledge on how to adapt to these natural disasters.
Alfaro-Castejón
Zone 1 between Alfaro and Castejón is the demonstration section of the project, with the implementation of natural water retention measures in a consecutive manner that will reduce the negative effects of flooding at the section level. This is materialized in the recovery of meanders of the Ebro river as a fluvial space, eliminating narrowing areas and, in addition, reconnecting riparian forests and recovering old river branches. The main intervention is the removal of defensive dykes and the restoration of three meanders, La Roza and Soto de Alfaro, in Alfaro (La Rioja) and El Señorío, in Castejón (Navarra).
Important figures, 800 hectares will be improved against the Ebro floods, 60 hectares of space will be recovered for the river and 20 hectares of riparian forest will be added. In addition, 2 hectares of invasive plant species will be removed.
The intervention of morphological adequacy in the Ebro in the meander of La Roza, in Alfaro, executed by the Hydrographic Confederation of the Ebro, through the public company TRAGSA, ended in November 2023. This work, with a budget of 2.2 million euros and which has included the improvement of the drainage capacity of the eyes of the railroad bridge, has already demonstrated its positive effect during the flood events of early 2024. It has also increased the protected area in the Natura 2000 Network by 22 hectares.
The environmental restoration of the recovered meander, an intervention being carried out by the Government of La Rioja, is just a part of the plantings away from completion.
In the Soto de Alfaro, a project is currently underway to reopen 60 hectares of lost river branches in the meander. These recovered branches will promote its role as a fluvial space in situations of flooding of the Ebro River. This is a clear example of applying nature-based solutions to reduce the risk of flooding.
For its part, the intervention in the meander of El Señorío, in Castejón, has just started with phase 1 of environmental restoration carried out by Gestión Ambiental de Navarra. The intervention of morphological adaptation, which consists of the recovery of the meander as a space for the river and which will be carried out by the CHE, is pending the availability of land.
Osera de Ebro – Fuentes de Ebro
Zone 2 corresponds to the Aragonese section between Osera de Ebro and Fuentes de Ebro, in Zaragoza, which corresponds to the pilot proposal of the project. Here a novel intervention has been designed that will make it possible to reconcile an intensively cultivated agricultural area with the passage of floods.
For this purpose, the creation of lateral flow buffer zones has been planned. These buffer zones will compartmentalize farms into areas that will be pre-flooded just before the levees overflow, creating water buffers that will minimize damage to farms and infrastructure.
In addition, the capacity of the riverbed will be increased, recovering fluvial space by recessing two sections of the defense dike. These new river areas will be environmentally restored.
The works for the implementation of the lateral flow buffer zones and the recovery of fluvial space will be undertaken by TRAGSA under the direction of the CHE. The Government of Aragon will carry out the adaptation of the irrigation system and environmental restoration.
The irrigation system adaptation project, which is already in its second phase, is currently underway in this section, and the project to recess the dikes in the mejana del Conde and the meander of Aguilar has also just started.
This section will improve the flood situation of 350 hectares; 27 hectares of river space will be recovered, of which 5 hectares will be converted into riparian forests and the area of riparian habitats will be increased by 50%.
Participation in figures
The population benefited in the intervention area is 22,870 inhabitants. The LIFE Project is making an important effort to achieve the involvement of the local population, creating spaces for participation that are a milestone in flood risk management, as there are no previous experiences with the same scope, neither in Spain nor in Europe.
So far, 66 participation sessions have been held (public conferences, gatherings, meetings of stable groups) with 991 participants and 15 social capacity building actions (talks, hiking trails and interpretive descents along the river) with 447 participants.
In addition to this, teachers were trained in the intervention areas and didactic and educational materials were produced (information sheets, didactic units, suitcases with school material, a game to learn about the flood phenomenon, the publication of a story for children’s education, etc.).
These experiences have led to proposals that are being implemented in the project itself, such as the uses of a plot of land freed up in the La Roza meander, proposals for environmental restoration actions and improvements in the construction projects underway.
One of the pilot actions has been the creation of the Stable Conflict Transformation Group. In order to improve social awareness and understanding of the different dimensions of flood risk management, a stable group of stakeholders from the middle reaches of the Ebro River has been formed, seeking dialogue on flood-related conflicts.
Another avenue explored by the Project is the so-called co-creation groups, six in total in the area of action (three for the Alfaro-Castejón section and three for the Zaragoza area), which bring together the technical representatives of the partners and local stakeholders in a forum that allows continuous participation and greater impact when analyzing proposals and developing them jointly.
The proposal for the creation of a virtual platform for monitoring the interventions, a citizen science experience to increase the general knowledge of the river and of the LIFE actions, is in the development phase.
Finally, the social capacity building plan aims to increase the population’s knowledge of the river and includes 16 campaigns aimed at different sectors of the population (technicians, educational sector, communicators, primary sector, environmental sector, general public…).
Ebro Resilience Strategy
The LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project is part of the Ebro Resilience Strategy, which is a framework of collaboration between the different Administrations, as well as other actors, to work in a supportive and coordinated manner in the management of flood risk in the middle stretch of the Ebro River, forming a sub-program of the Flood Risk Management Plan of the Ebro river basin demarcation. In the case of the Strategy, the scope of intervention is the entire middle stretch from Logroño to La Zaida, in Zaragoza.
In short, the mission of this Strategy is to promote actions that reduce the impact of floods in the most at-risk sections of the middle reaches of the Ebro River, implementing measures that in turn contribute to improving the condition of bodies of water and river habitats. It also aims to improve the population’s capacity to respond to such events.
The vision for the future is to achieve a middle stretch of the Ebro in which economic activities and population centers coexist with an Ebro river in a good state of conservation, without the inevitable floods causing significant damage.