The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation (Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge) has completed, in the absence of the latest planting works, the works that have allowed to expand the section of the riverbed and adapt the riverside on the left bank of the Ebro River downstream of the Ebro-Hijar confluence in Reinosa (Cantabria). With an investment of 260,300 euros, this initiative will avoid or significantly reduce the damage caused by a flood in the Cantabrian towns of Reinosa and Matamorosa.
In December 2019, the ends of the avenue of the three rivers met at the confluences with the Ebro of the Hijar and Izarilla rivers, in a hydrological event in which the more than 300 cubic meters per second of peak flow of the Hijar river at the entrance of Matamorosa stood out, corresponding to a period of return (at that time) close to 500 years.
In subsequent months, the CHE prepared the study “Hydrological and hydraulic modeling of the rivers that run through the towns of Reinosa and Matamorosa after the flooding episodes of December 2019”. It established proposals to improve the behavior of the Ebro and Hijar rivers in flood situations, as well as to reduce the risk of overflow in the urban centers of Reinosa and Matamorosa. As a result of this work, the project that includes these works was proposed, whose name is “Expansion of the section of the riverbed and adaptation of the riverside on the left bank of the Ebro river downstream of the Ebro-Hijar confluence in Reinosa (Cantabria)”.
Its main objective is to improve the output of the flows that coincide at the critical point of the Ebro-Hijar confluence, located immediately downstream of the population of Reinosa.
In particular, work has been done on the left bank of the River Ebro, at its confluence and downstream with the Hijar, in a length around 250 meters, adapting and protecting the margin from erosion. The riverside vegetation has been recovered with the planting of trees, piles and seeds.
Likewise, in order to extend the Ebro river and allow the passage of greater flows in an extraordinary avenue situation, the slope has been dismantled and recessed over a length of 140 meters, increasing the width between 8 and 17 meters. With this, if in the future there is an event similar to that of December 2019, the damages in the populations upstream would be avoided or significantly reduced, having the flow rates a better way out.
This action concludes the work to which the Ebro Hydrographic Confederation committed itself after the extraordinary events of four years ago in the Ebro, Hijar and Izarilla rivers as it passed through the urban centers of Reinosa and Matamorosa (Cantabria).
Sustainable Ebro
These works respond to the management axes of the CHE for a Sustainable Ebro. The fourth axis, “Renewal of the vision of the river dynamics”, aims to look at our rivers with a renewed vision that allows to favor their environmental recovery.
The other four axes are: the improvement of knowledge (axis 1), which seeks to incorporate the best techniques and the latest research in the management of the hydrographic demarcation of the Ebro and facilitate its dissemination to all citizens; the improvement of its management, seeking greater efficiency in the systems (axis 2); achieving the good state of the water masses with measures to have a water environment and its ecosystems associated with increasingly better environmental conditions (axis 3), and the guarantee of supply to essential uses (axis 5).