It could already be seen in the middle of spring: the yellowish tone is taking over some parks, gardens and flower beds with grass or other plants in Barcelona and the cities of its metropolitan area. The urban green, the spaces where the cities breathe, suffer the effects of the drought and the restrictions on the use of water. It can be seen with the naked eye and now it is impossible to change the situation from one day to the next. In a context of climate emergency, the stamp indicates that it will be repeated in the coming years. Even the citizens may have to get used to other colors in the urban green. In any case, it is convenient to adapt to the new situation.
In this sense, four experts in the field consulted by La Vanguardia agree on the same imperative need: to incorporate more sustainable ways of irrigating in order to make rational use of the most precious and ultimately increasingly scarce liquid.
“The most important challenge is to achieve irrigation systems with non-potable water,” says Cati Montserrat, a green engineer specializing in projects and works. “Irrigation infrastructures with non-potable water are absolutely urgent,” adds Pepa Morán, architect and landscape designer responsible for consolidated projects such as the Parc Fluvial del Llobregat, located in El Prat de Llobregat.
“It was already known, but the drought has made this need more evident,” considers Izaskun Martí, director of technical services and planning for Parcs y Jardins at Barcelona City Council. “Water is essential in the urban green, but we have to supply ourselves with non-potable water”, concludes Dina Alsawi, a technician specializing in park management. Thus, there is unanimity among the professionals in the sector consulted.
“In many cases there is no alternative to drinking water,” laments Alsawi. “I suppose it’s something that you don’t realize you need until the problem hits you,” says Montserrat. The use of groundwater or regenerated liquid emerges as the long-term sustainable alternative. “We are on this path, but we need more steps. A decade ago there were already projects, but not all of them have been carried out”, recalls the green engineer.
In the city of Barcelona, ??Izaskun Martí says that 15% of the irrigation in parks and gardens already comes from groundwater. “The forecast is to go in crescendo,” he says. For example, the new large park of the Glòries “already foresees what groundwater to use”. In the neighborhood of La Marina and El Prat Vermell, an area in which the Catalan capital is growing with thousands of flats under construction or planned, the possibility of using reclaimed water from the El Prat de Llobregat treatment plant is being “studied”. “The groundwater is also limited,” observes Dina Alsawi.
For some time now, projects for new parks in the metropolitan area have also had protocols to rationalize water consumption. Plants that require a lot are rejected. For example, in Molins de Rei, two new squares designed by Pepa Morán are under construction, which aspire to end up being two sorts of urban forests in a town nestled between Collserola and the Llobregat river.
“They are viable, from the second year almost no species will need irrigation,” says Morán. For her it is “very important” to irrigate from the groundwater to at the same time “recharge” it and thus generate a “water cycle”. For now, these two projects will be irrigated with potable water. While waiting for it to be regenerated, in this locality there is the addition that the groundwater is considered drinkable.
Evolves the water used and also the irrigation systems. Cati Montserrat reports that at the moment “there is already a lot of offer” of sustainable methods, some of them intelligent with sensors. The most modern alternatives allow to optimize the use and to rationalize.
But no matter how much better it is managed, in a climate emergency context, water will continue to be a scarce commodity. That is why they will also change some of the species that until now are common for others. “The neighbors should get used to not always seeing green because they should bet on more native gardening, with a color that changes depending on the seasons,” says Isazkun Martí. Pepa Morán agrees, assuming that the population will have to get used to a “new aesthetic”, which has nothing to do with the “northern European model”.
According to Morán, the future is “to work with shrub species adaptable to the Mediterranean climate in a situation of drought”. For her, the example of what already exists in the Collserola Natural Park and the Parc Agrari del Baix Llobregat should be followed. “We have the models next to us”, she finishes off. The grass, Isazkun Martí resumes, is “a great consumer of water” although there are some varieties that are less wasteful than others.
The trees will not be the same either, although the change will not be overnight. Martí argues that “for years now” typologies that adapt to the climate have been planted in Barcelona, ??even selecting variants from southern Spain or northern Africa. It is not advisable to look towards the north of Europe.
However, the substitution is made “gradually” when the trees are sick or die, as well as in the new green spaces. “It’s like surgery, you can’t do a clean sweep,” describes Dina Alsawi. In fact, she remembers that in the 2008 drought “some spaces were already rethought.”
“It’s also about diversifying,” Cati Montserrat points out. “A tree that is doing well in Sant Boi de Llobregat may not be doing well in Manresa”, resolves Pepa Morán.