The Generalitat Valenciana has announced the creation of two large floodable urban parks on the banks of the Turia River and Barranco del Poyo, with the aim of preventing the consequences of extreme weather events such as the floods that hit the province of Valencia and l’Horta Sud last October 29, 2024, which caused 227 deaths.
“We are going to create two urban parks on the banks of the Turia and the Barranco del Poyo,” said the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, during a visit to the Albufera Natural Park on Friday.
As explained by the head of the Consell, the floodable park in the Turia will have a length of 10.5 kilometers and will connect the current headwaters of the Turia Garden with the Albufera Natural Park.
The park planned for the Barranco del Poyo ravine will occupy two sectors of 18.5 and 5.5 kilometers respectively, distributed between the Pla de Quart and the Albufera.
Both parks will use existing rural land and will allow the environmental regeneration of more than 1,500 hectares, which, according to Mazón, will form “a green area equivalent to the Casa de Campo in Madrid” and will serve as “a new defense against possible floods”.
These green areas will be designed to assume a dual role: during dry periods, they will function as recreational spaces; in the event of torrential rains, they will act as lamination areas that retain the water, thus reducing the risk of overflows in nearby urban areas.
The idea of this project is to replicate the role played by the Albufera during the October floods, acting as a mitigation and protection barrier, without which the consequences could have been even more devastating.
Similar projects in other Valencian towns since the 1980’s
After devastating episodes such as the Tous reservoir in 1982, some Valencian towns opted for radical solutions. Beneixida and Gavarda, for example, were completely rebuilt on higher ground after being flooded by the flood caused by the bursting of the Tous dam, which submerged up to thirty municipalities along the Júcar river, with water levels reaching eight meters.
Decades later, municipalities such as Ontinyent have followed this preventive approach, demolishing entire neighborhoods to create flood parks, as highlighted in this report from eldiario.es.