Water, energy and more trees will increase climate comfort in Seville

Sevilla, 17 dic (EFE).- Water, energy and an increase in the number of trees will be used to achieve climate comfort in the center of Seville, an Andalusian city where the City Council has decided to adapt to climate change and reduce temperatures in different rooms. 

Replacement of networks

El ingeniero de Emasesa, Juan Luis López Martínez. EFE/Jose Manuel Vidal

The engineer of Empresa Metropolitana de Saneamiento y Abastecimiento de Sevilla, S.A. (Emasesa), Juan Luis López Martínez, explains that the project was born out of the company’s need to renew and replace the sewerage and supply networks, which were very deteriorated. Taking advantage of the execution of these works, the whole LIFE Watercool project was presented to Europe.

The LIFE Watercool project, co-financed by the European Union, is implemented in the redevelopment plan of the Red Cross Avenue-Healthy City and four surrounding streets in order to create climatic comfort in them and in three other rooms within the scope of the works.

Rainwater management

LIFE Watercool has several objectives, according to López Martínez, “the one that most concerns Emasesa” is that of rainwater management, that is, the management of around 80% of rainwater through urban sustainable development systems (SUDS). “We collect the water with permeable pavements in the area and by means of gravel layers it is infiltrated through infiltration wells.”

Collecting water through the infiltration wells “is more efficient than the traditional way,” he says, explaining that traditionally the water that falls on the street through the scuppers is diverted directly to the sewage system.

“The infiltration wells reintegrate the water to the phreatic level, with this, what is intended is to return the area that is already urban to a state prior to urbanization, that is, the land is made permeable again, which is its natural state”.

In this way, “this water is prevented from being lost, from being reintegrated into the network and from generating problems in the network, at the discharge points”, emphasizes López Martínez.

Climate comfort and air quality

Work on the Red Cross Avenue as part of the LIFE Watercool project, co-financed by the European Union.EFE/Jose Manuel Vidal

Independently of this, there is “a more important objective” which is the creation of climate comfort rooms and temperature reduction that is achieved through “the implementation of trees and the creation of three prototypes that will create a microclimate in three areas within the scope of the project”.

These three areas are a bus stop, the Arias Montano school and the square in front of the education center where the prototypes designed by engineers from the University of Seville will be installed, which together with the City Council of the Andalusian capital will implement this part of the project, says the expert.

Apart from that, the reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) is also pursued, which is achieved with the increase of trees and the reduction of air pollutants, specifically nitrogen oxides. This is achieved through photocatalytic treatments in the pavement that allow the absorption of the oxides improving “very much the quality of the air”.

The Red Cross Avenue “will be completely pedestrianized” maintaining a bike lane, which is a main road that will also serve to serve both the existing garages and the Red Cross hospital, which is located on this street, to meet supplies, ambulance traffic, including firefighters, cleaning services, “all that restricted traffic is maintained along this avenue,” said Lopez Martinez.

The increase of trees -along with the existing trees in the avenue- generates the area of shade, “that is essential to generate a cover that prevents solar radiation from reaching the ground, not heating the pavements, generating a feeling of freshness and a reduction of temperatures evident”.

These actions are intended to “recover public spaces for citizens, regardless of the temperature”, and it is hoped that the essence of street life “which is what characterizes social life in Seville” will not be lost, enhancing the creation of the three comfort rooms of the project.

Water as a protagonist

The LIFE Watercool project, co-financed by the European Union. EFE/Jose Manuel Vidal

He emphasizes that water is fundamental in the operation of the three programmed climatic comfort rooms. In them, bioclimatic systems of tempered water generation are proposed by means of a cold water generation system against the night sky, cold water that will be stored in cisterns that will be installed in the school square, of 25 cubic meters each, which will be used in each of the three rooms to generate cold air or a reduction in temperature by radiation.

“Therefore, this water is essential for the creation of climatic comfort in the rooms of the project,” he says.

Another of the actions of the LIFE Watercool is that the prototypes that are implemented in this particular project are replicable within Seville and any other place that has the same problem with climate change and “the increase in extreme temperatures as we are suffering in Seville, because this can occur in any other latitude,” concludes Lopez Martinez. EFE

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