Seville will green the Macarena to favor climate adaptation

Sevilla, 3 dic (EFE).- The Seville City Council will plant more trees in the Macarena district to increase shaded areas, favor CO2 capture and adaptation to climate change and reduce temperatures in the city center, actions that are part of the LIFE Watercool project.

Greening of La Macarena

The architect of the Seville City Council, Isabel Rus. EFE/Mar Morales

The greening of the Macarena is included in the redevelopment plan for the Avenida de la Cruz Roja-Ciudad Sostenible that is being carried out by the Seville City Council and Empresa Metropolitana de Abastecimiento y Saneamiento de Sevilla, S.A. (Emasesa) within the LIFE Watercool project, co-financed by the European Union.

The project aims to achieve adaptation to climate change – with water as the main element and the technology developed by the University of Seville – in four streets of the district, specifically in Avenida de la Cruz Roja, Jorge de Montemayor, Doctor Jiménez Díaz and Manuel Villalobo.

Reclaiming spaces for neighbors

The architect of the City Council of Seville Isabel Rus explained to EFE that the aim of greening the Macarena district “is to recover spaces in the streets for the neighbors, is to return the characteristic habitat of the municipalities of southern Europe, with spaces of coexistence, contemplation and achieve adaptation to climate change”.

The actions also seek to improve air quality by reducing pollution generated by vehicles, for which the passage of cars will be limited, favoring public transport, bike lanes and the pedestrianization of the Red Cross Avenue.

All this will favor the reduction of high summer temperatures and heat islands in the center of Seville, actions that according to Rus will go together with the design of “greener rooms” and the creation of “a large green door”, with abundant vegetation, “as a reminder of the old access gates to the city”.

It will be a space for “the citizen who will gain much within this intervention” and will be “a big change” and a “paradigm of green intervention” in the city, according to the municipal architect.

Water savings

Para lograr el máximo ahorro del agua de escorrentía “se mejorará la permeabilidad de los suelos” con la utilización de pavimentos impermeables, para la recogida y almacenamiento para alimentar los acuíferos.

El equipo de ingeniería de la Universidad de Sevilla está diseñando además para la plaza del colegio Arias Montano un banco que por medio de un sistema de enfriamiento generará un aire fresco, que “unido a la corriente humidificada” de la fuente que se genera en el entorno “hará que la estancia sea verdaderamente agradable”, sobre todo en los meses estivales “que son los duros en la ciudad”.

Además, en la plaza del colegio se potenciará el ficus existente -una especie común en Sevilla-, ampliando el alcorque y colocando un banco que permitirá zonas con más sombra, así como una plataforma única para personas con movilidad reducida que les permita “moverse por la ciudad y disfrutar de ella”.

El ficus tendrá un telón de fondo con “paulownias tormentosas”, una variedad híbrida estéril, según Rus, y un árbol paradigmático dentro del cambio climático porque es “de rápido crecimiento, un ‘aspirador’ de dióxido de carbono (CO2), transformándolo en oxígeno como diez veces más que el resto de especies vegetales”.

En esa plaza del colegio se creará “un vergel, una explosión de árboles alternando árboles de hoja caduca con los de hoja perenne”.

Green door

To achieve maximum savings of runoff water, “the permeability of the soil will be improved” with the use of impermeable pavements for collection and storage to feed the aquifers.

The engineering team of the University of Seville is also designing for the Arias Montano school square a bench that by means of a cooling system will generate fresh air, which “together with the humidified current” of the fountain generated in the environment “will make the stay really pleasant”, especially in the summer months “which are the hard ones in the city”.

In addition, the existing ficus -a common species in Seville- will be enhanced in the school square, enlarging the tree surround and placing a bench that will allow areas with more shade, as well as a single platform for people with reduced mobility that will allow them to “move around the city and enjoy it”.

The ficus will have a backdrop with “stormy paulownias”, a sterile hybrid variety, according to Rus, and a paradigmatic tree within climate change because it is “fast growing, a ‘vacuum cleaner’ of carbon dioxide (CO2), transforming it into oxygen about ten times more than other plant species”.

In that school square will be created “an orchard, an explosion of trees alternating deciduous trees with evergreens”.

Tree relocation

In Manuel Villalobos Avenue, the orange trees “that are not well located, following the guidelines of the master plan of the trees of the city of Seville, will be taken to the nursery and replaced by a species of greater size that introduces a cheerful, vivid yellow coloration that “is the cledsidia sumbus”.

As ground cover or shrubs, along the avenue will be designed “some vases that will give a lot of vibration and increase biodiversity” and that will improve climatic, thermal and acoustic comfort, as well as shade.

“It will be a real green performance, it will be like a green grain in the city in this square,” said Rus, who explained that these are replicable actions in the city. EFE

Information provided by EFEverde of Agencia EFE and published as part of its participation in the European Union’s Life WaterCool project.

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