Edat Mitjana will feed the Rec Comtal, Barcelona irrigating its farms and pacifying its population; Starting in the 19th century, it became one of the most important industrial areas of the city, and now, in the 21st century, the Bessos River is consolidated as an “environmental corridor of ecological quality and great landscapes serving the citizens”. This is what Ramon Torra, Director of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB), defines as an environment on the verge of writing a new capital of transformation history: two projects promoted by AMB have achieved an economic endowment of 18 million euros to deepen this unique regeneration path.
For thirty years, at the beginning of the North, the Bessos River was considered one of the most polluted rivers in Europe. The 18-kilometre-long strip and strip of track connecting Vallès Oriental will stretch through cities such as Montcada i Reixac, Santa Coloma, Sant Adrià and Barcelona, among others, and will create some of the most vulnerable neighborhoods in the entire metropolitan area. The river will, in a certain way, most of the time act as a kind of physical and psychological border on the periphery of Barcelona, and from the post-war period onwards, industries will replace agricultural land and transport a large number of workers.
“(The plan) includes learning from European projects to improve urban resilience, in order to strengthen itself as a benchmark in urban transformation and social cohesion.”
Antonio Palmon, Executive Vice President of AMB
Due to the installation of purifiers and the construction of the Besos River Park, which will be opened in 2001, Bessos has been a neglected and degraded area, both from a social, urban and environmental perspective. The three existing projects, in particular, represent the pillars of the work of the AMB, which aspires to “promote the continuous and lasting transformation of the Bessos River,” in the case of the Toura, and this has been reflected in initiatives such as the Bessos Strategy, the Metropolitan Program for a Million Paris or the Metropolitan Bike.
Removing barriers and improving quality of life
IMPULS Besòs is one of the future projects that aspires to make this strategic vision effective. With a planned investment of €15 million – some of which will come from the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) which will be undertaken by AMB and the municipalities of Sant Adrià de Besòs and Badalona – the total AMB12 actions are planned to regenerate and transform the area, improve the quality of life, promote sustainability and modify infrastructures that impose barriers and fragment the area. “(The plan) includes learning from European projects to improve urban resilience, in order to strengthen itself as a benchmark in urban transformation and social cohesion,” says Antonio Palmon, AMB’s executive vice president.
Among these measures, highlighting, for example, the promotion of walking and cycling on the Gran Via Metropolitana; Melera C-31; Urban transformation of the old N-2 route (from Avinguda d’Alfons XIII to Badalona EPI Margal to Sant Adria de Besos), with the first public transport corridor managed by artificial intelligence; Or the renewal of the river corridor on the tram between Bolancreda and Pont dels Passadores, which provides continuity to the Besos River Corridor, with new social and environmental uses.
Furthermore, the project also contemplates the establishment of an “urban innovation lab” of a supra-municipal nature to address “social, urban and climate vulnerability”. “IMPULS Besòs is presented as the only urban innovation laboratory led by an urban administration in Spain and oriented towards the scalability of its projects throughout the metropolitan area,” says Palmon.
We should not forget that these actions share synergies with European innovation projects working to promote climate adaptation and urban biodiversity strategies, such as the Horizon Europe Commit2Green project; Governance projects to integrate climate shelters that respond to citizens’ needs, with EUI Time2Adapt; Projects to rethink large urban infrastructures, such as URBACT RiConnect, and projects that address issues of sustainable mobility and urban governance, such as Interreg Europe SMART MR and MetroCase.
In short, Tot Plegat seeks to transform the area where batia forbids any disease into an eix – blau, in this case – that follows the backbone of new opportunities, into a dynamic space on a social and economic scale. Finally, it represents a successful case of cooperation between different actors and departments, and a model that can be replicated in other weak areas.
Environmental, social and landscape recovery
The second initiative that promises to transform this spiritual space into an AMB strategy is ReViuBesòs. Its main objective is the environmental, social and landscape recovery of the Besos Estuary, for the people of Sant Adrià, and its budget is €2.7 million, 40% of which comes from the European Regional Development Funds (ERDF) and the rest is co-financed between l’AMB and l’Ajuntament de Sant Adrià.
“This project with a 100% urban vision also includes a qualitative salt that will improve the final part of the mouth and adapt it to the effects of climate change,” says Torra.
“For two decades the Besos River was a degraded space and today it has become an ecological corridor with great ecological and scenic quality serving the citizens.”
Ramon Torra, Director of AMB
The Director of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB) will travel to Madrid at the beginning of September at an event organized by the Biodiversity Foundation, where the presence of this project in the twelve schools will become official to promote actions to develop and strengthen green infrastructure for normalization and resilience in Spanish cities. This work was chaired by the Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environmental and Demographic Transition, Sarah Agsin, and also included the participation of representatives of the European Commission, the Ministry of History and various selected projects.
Filo Canetti, Mayor of Sant’Adria, explains that the Council will continue for a long time with actions “from the Melora to the urban environment of the Bessos River and the dry river area” that follow, in a certain way, “a second renewal of this symbolic space of the city, in line with the transformation that began at the beginning of the 2000s to the recovery of the river.”
“The ReViuBesòs project promotes biodiversity and enhances the resilience of the territory and the city to the impacts of climate change. It aims to complete the transformation of the Besos delta and the mouth of the forest into a more dynamic, resilient and useful space for the city, now ensuring the protection and preservation of its natural values,” said Aprovondex.
This philosophy will be embodied in a series of actions, with the construction of a canal parallel to the river between the end of the public area of the Fluvial del Besos Park and the sea, with the function of distributing water to the system and acting as a refuge area for wildlife. Another is the construction of a saltwater basin, located at the edge of the river, closest to the sea, which will facilitate the spread of new plant communities, such as salicornia or junqueris, as well as the development of fauna such as the wind, a threatened species that has disappeared from the kisses, and I could find an opportunity to reintroduce it into this ecosystem.
Citizen awareness
In fact, the environmental and ecological beauty of the mouth has turned it into an ideal breeding space for the little wanderer, a small species from Europe and Asia Minor that hibernates in Africa. The technical equipment of AMB follows new examples and protects the space with protection tanks. Management also affects vegetation, through manual weeding, planting native plants and monitoring protected species.
“The ReViuBesòs project enhances biodiversity and strengthens the capacity of the region and the city to adapt to the effects of climate change”
Filo Canetti, Mayor of Sant’Adria
Within AMB’s field of work there is also scope for initiatives that have a more direct impact on children’s lives. In parallel with the comprehensive management of the parks, more important projects have been completed in the urban green spaces of the sector, such as Can Zam and Bessos, with the renewal of roads, lighting and surrounding reservoirs, as well as the integration of new services and equipment with areas for children’s sports or games. comprehensive.
So much so that with the aim of increasing the awareness of citizens regarding the importance of preserving and protecting the environments – but also the goodness – of the mouth of Besos, they have enabled educational equipment, the patissages bearing the name Naturals, with fan activities through the Let’s Learn Xarxa program.
“This proposal represents the consolidation of the continuous and permanent transformation of the Besos River, which for two decades was a degraded space and today has become an ecological corridor of ecological quality and great landscapes serving the citizens,” Torra concluded.