You could already see it in the middle of spring: the yellowish tone is taking over some parks, gardens and flowerbeds with grass or other plants in Barcelona and the cities of its metropolitan area. The urban green, the spaces where localities 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 overnight. In a context of climate emergency, the print 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 necessary 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 watering in order to make rational use of the most precious and increasingly scarce liquid.
“The most important challenge is to get 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 Llobregat River Park, located in Prat de Llobregat. “It was already known, but the drought has made this need more obvious,” says Izaskun Martí, director of technical services and planning for Parks and Gardens at Barcelona City Council. “Water is essential in the urban green, but we have to provide ourselves with non-potable water”, concludes Dina Alsawi, specialist in park management. So, there is unanimity among the sector professionals consulted.
“In many cases there is no alternative to drinking water”, laments Alsawi. “I guess you don’t realize it until you need it, until the problem falls on you,” recounts Montserrat. The use of groundwater or regenerated liquid emerges as the sustainable long-term 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 done”, recalls the green engineer.
In the city of Barcelona, ??explains Izaskun Martí, 15% of the irrigation of parks and gardens already comes from ground water. “The forecast is to go in crescendo”, he indicates. For example, the new large Glòries park “already foresees which ground water to use”. In the Marina del Prat Vermell neighborhood, an area in which the Catalan capital is growing with thousands of flats under construction or planned, the possibility of using regenerated water from the Prat de Llobregat treatment plant is being “studied”. “The ground water is also limited”, observes Dina Alsawi.
For some time now, projects for new parks in the metropolitan area have also included protocols to rationalize water consumption. Plants that require a lot of it are rejected.
For example, in Molins de Rei, two new squares designed by Pepa Morán are under construction, which aim to end up being two kinds of urban forests in a town sandwiched 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 the water table to, at the same time, “recharge” it and thus generate a “water cycle”. For now, these two projects will be irrigated with potable water. Awaiting regeneration, in this locality there is the addition that the groundwater is considered potable.
It evolves the water used and also the irrigation systems. Cati Montserrat reports that at the moment “there is already a lot of supply” of sustainable methods, some intelligent ones that use sensors. The most modern alternatives allow in this way to optimize the use and rationalize water.
But no matter how much it is managed better, in a climate emergency context water will continue to be a scarce commodity. For this reason, some of the species that have been common until now will also be replaced by others.
“Neighbors will have to get used to not always seeing green because they have to bet on more native gardening, with a changing color depending on the seasons”, says Isazkun Martí. Pepa Morán agrees, who assumes 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 “working with shrub species adaptable to the Mediterranean climate in a drought situation”. In his opinion, the example of what already exists in the scope of the Collserola natural park and the Baix Llobregat Agricultural Park should be followed. “We have the models next to us”, he finishes. The lawn, Isazkun Martí continues, is “a big 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 asserts 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 recommended to look towards northern Europe.
However, trees are replaced “gradually” when they are sick or die, as well as in new green spaces. “It’s like surgery”, describes Dina Alsawi. In fact, he remembers, that during the drought of 2008 “some spaces were already rethought”.
“It’s also about diversifying,” points out Cati Montserrat. “A tree that goes well in Sant Boi de Llobregat may not go well in Manresa”, Pepa Morán decides.
