From Ecosystem to Water Management. From Agriculture to Water Management. A pilot in L’Albufera, 3 partners: technology centre (ITE) + NGO managing a constructed wetland (Agró) + Rice Producers Association (Séquia de l’Or)
The pilot at L’Albufera Natural Park, a wetland located in the Land of Valencia (ES). The
main agricultural activity is rice production, which is completely linked to hydric wetland management and rice paddies
are also habitat for waterfowl. Rice fields are organised in irrigation communities. L’Albufera is also a eutrophicated lake, so
to improve the water quality, innovative constructed wetlands have been installed on old rice paddies to remove pollutants
(nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended solids) from water through phytoremediation techniques. Wetlands are a cutting-edge low-energy approach to water treatment by using the natural growth of marsh vegetation in the ecosystem as a means for water phytodepuration. This methodology achieves a 60% water depuration rate with very low energy consumption and positive impacts over the ecosystem. However, emerging pollutants such as medicines, herbicides, pesticides – some of which come directly from surrounding agriculture activities – are still hard to remove. Also, biomass needs to be cleared at the end of each treatment cycle, generating a hard-to-value resource. The pilot aims at using the marsh vegetation biomass in constructed wetlands to create activated carbons that
can be brought back to the constructed wetlands to remove these emerging pollutants along with the phytodepuration water
treatment (From Ecosystem to Water).
Due to historical rice field construction, an irregular mosaic of small arable plots emerged with an uncoordinated structure of altitudes, preventing gravity to increase irrigation efficiency. The large number of small plots implies longer irrigation channels, where a fraction of the water is lost. Driving water from plot to plot and overcoming land level unevenness, increasing the need for water and energy, and increasing the quantity of pesticides and herbicides used in agriculture that end up damaging the lake ecosystem. New organisational models are required to manage land in a more efficient structure and levelling, enabling all farmers to reduce the water, energy, pesticides, and herbicides needed for effective irrigation, while increasing smallholders’ profitability margins (From Agriculture to Water).
Water, Agriculture, Ecosystem, Constructed Wetland, Rice, Carbon, Depuration, Irrigation, Lake, Social Innovation
