Hydraulic Anatomy of Guadiana Springs (I)

Abstract

Guadiana River used to spring thanks to the Western Mancha Aquifer surplus flow, powering a set of sixteen watermills located along fifty kilometres of its upper reach. Such industrial hub lasted until the second half of last century, when drainage and drying-up works joined to aquifer overdraft, resulted in a distressing parched and scorched land where water and life had been dominant for centuries. The first target of this independent research, developed at the wetlands section of the Regional Centre Water Research and Civil Engineering Faculty (UCLM), is to characterize this ancient hydraulic system through geo-historiography and field works integrated in a Geographic Information System, to model that pristine hydrodynamics in IBER under flooding conditions. The expected results would assess the pristine hydraulic carrying capacity and flooding events management capacity of the sixteen weirs and watermills operating by 16th century, baseline to analyse further scenarios influenced by the drainage works to come. These parameters are essential to draft any fluvial restoration project focused on recovering that Hydraulic Public Domain and to mitigate the climate change potential effects.

Keywords

• geo-historiografía
• patrimonio
• iber
• modelización de capacidad de carga hidráulica