65
Órbigoriver
ecological status improvement
M
obilisingfinancialresources
The total projected budget of the measures is M€3. As of 2014, the executed budget is a little over M€2. The project has
been financed entirely by the Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs of Spain within the framework of
the
National Strategy onRiver Restoration
. 52% of the projected budget is to cover lateral connectivity and dynamics
improvement works, 15.7% longitudinal continuity improvement works, 7.52% riverbank stabilisation works, 11.14% site access
improvements and 2.57% supplementary works. Monitoring of works has an allowance of 3.89% of the budget, environmental
monitoring 3.89%, risk prevention 2.23% and waste management 1.06%. No land acquisition was necessary since the project
has been carried out on land that is already in the public domain. No operational costs are predicted. Maintenance costs
are very variable depending on the elements considered: re-vegetation generally implies maintenance costs up to 20% of the
investment cost, while for riverbank stabilisation maintenance costs are anticipated to be 15% of the investment cost.
Main-
tenance costs
are assumed by the River Basin Authority within the framework of its Public domain conservation program.
G
overnance
The project was initiated by the Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs of Spain, along with the River
Basin Authority. It was financed by the Ministry within the framework of the National Strategy on River Restoration. The
Duero River BasinAuthority
was responsible for determining the design details of the measures (selecting a candidate
project to be developed within the framework of the National Strategy on River Restoration) and for implementing them; this
included the preparatory phase, diagnosis, public hearing process, works, environmental education and volunteering program.
The authority is also responsible for monitoring the effects of the measures. Municipalities, local entities, neighbouring asso-
ciations and NGOs have been involved during implementation process: they participated in the preparatory phase, diagnosis
and public hearing process, and NGOs also volunteered in the river restoration activities.
M
ain
impacts
&
benefits
The implementation of the measure has had positive effects in terms of
connectivity
between the river and floodplain: 85.8% of the rock armour
and 98.7% of earth embankments has been removed, and 90.4% of earth
embankments have been moved away from the channel. Regarding longitudi-
nal continuity, 0.6% of riparian vegetation has been recovered. Modification of
in-river obstacles has contributed to allowing the passage of fauna (fish) and
sediment transport at two insurmountable weirs. The results of the first stage
of evaluation show that the ecological status of the river has been improved
since implementation of the measures. The measures also provide a benefit
of flood risk reduction through recovering
480ha of flood prone areas
,
which have a high capacity to attenuate floods naturally. According to the
Planning Office (River Basin Authority, on-going evaluation), the project has
performed as planned against floods that took during winter 2013 (160m
3
/s
flood, which were similar to those that occurred in 1995 and 2000, in the
former cases causing serious damage) and during spring 2014 (300m
3
/s in
April). These were successfully abated in terms of favourably smoothing the
floods and the lack of material damage (e.g. avoided damage to buildings and
houses at Carrizo de la Ribera) and, subsequently, the absence of complaints
from the local population. In addition, increased infiltration rate and rate of
recharge of the natural alluvial floodplains are expected.
© Duero River Basin Authority (CHD)
Naturally reconnected floodplain after the restoration works.
During the flood event in April 2014 the area benefited
from recharge of the alluvial floodplain and soil fertilization
