Albufera Natural Park

The Albufera Natural Park (in Valencian Parc Natural de l'Albufera) or simply La Albufera (from Arabic البحيرة al-Buḥayra, «the lake») is a Spanish protected natural area located in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community. It was also known by the Romans as Nacarum Stagnum and in some Arabic poems it is called Mirror of the Sun.

This area of 21,120 ha, which was declared a natural park by the Generalitat Valenciana on July 8, 1986, is located about 10 km south of the city of Valencia. It includes the Albufera, its humid environment and the coastline adjacent to both.

On October 23, 1990, the document of the Special Plan for the Protection of the Natural Park was approved (currently repealed by the Supreme Court of Spain) and Decree 96/1995, of May 16, approved the Management Plan for the Natural Resources (PORN) of the Albufera Hydrographic Basin.) from the Albufera.

In 1902, the Valencian writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez wrote the novel Cañas y barro, set in the Albufera at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Valencia lagoon is a shallow coastal lagoon (average depth 1 m) located on the Mediterranean coast south of the city of Valencia. It covers an area of 23.94 km² and is surrounded by 223 km² of paddy fields. Its watershed extends for 917.1 km², from sea level to an altitude of about 1,000 ms. no. m.. It is separated from the sea by a narrow sandy coastline (restinga) with dunes stabilized by a pine forest (Dehesa del Saler). The Albufera is a transit area for many species of migratory birds.

Its ecological value is very great since here are species of great ecological value in danger of extinction, such as the fartet or the samarugo. It is also one of the few lagoons that are preserved in good condition in the Valencian Community, whose coast was formerly made up of a succession of lagoons and marshes. Today you can still see the succession of marshes along the entire Valencian coast, although smaller than the Albufera de Valencia, from the Pego-Oliva marsh, the Jaraco marsh, the Rafalell marsh and Vistabella in the Valencian district of Rafalell and Vistabella, the Marjal del Moro in Puzol-Sagunto, or the Almenara marsh, among others.

Geography

Municipalities included

The set of municipalities that comprise the territory of the Albufera Natural Park is divided into four regions, Ribera Alta, Ribera Baja, Huerta Sur and the City of Valencia, and in turn, many of these municipalities have districts within the territorial scope of the natural park. There are 13 municipalities included in the park.

Park signpost

Methods of communication

Puerto de Catarroja

The main access road to the park is the El Saler highway (V-15) which, starting from Valencia, crosses the park from north to south to El Saler, where it continues as a conventional road to Sueca (CV-500), and in Les Palmeres it connects with the CV-502 road, which goes to Cullera. Another access road to the northern part of the natural park is the CV-401, which runs from the commercial area of Alfafar to the Valencian district of El Saler.

To the southwest of the park runs the N-332, which crosses the park from Sollana to Sueca, although works are currently underway to convert this road into the Valencia-Almería highway along the coast. The urban highways of the Silla track (V-31) and the southern ring road of Valencia (V-30) are also important, which serve as an artificial limit to the park.

In addition to these roads, it should be noted that the Albufera Natural Park is crossed by countless rural roads and cattle tracks, which connect the various areas of the park and the different urban centers in the area. There are also different river ports, such as Catarroja, El Tremolar, Silla and Sollana, as well as piers in El Palmar and El Saler.

Climate

Port of Silla

Satellite image of the albufera

Its climate is Mediterranean, mild, with an average annual humidity of 65%. Its average temperature is 17.8 °C. As the graph shows, their average values range from 11.5 °C in January to 25.5 °C in August.

Precipitation is 454 mm per year. They are usually very intense and concentrated in autumn, a phenomenon known as cold drop.

Observatory of the city of Valencia. Altitude 11 m. Latitude 39 28 48. Length 0 22 52.

Hydrography

Rambla del Poyo in Chiva

The basin flows into the Albufera through various ravines or ravines. The most important ones that arrive are: the Rambla del Poyo (also known as the Torrente ravine, Masanasa ravine or Chiva ravine), whose basin has 367.6 km² (40% of the total basin); the Picasent ravine (also known as the Beniparrell ravine); The Barranc dels Algadins has a basin area of 23 km², and most of its basin is located in the Alginet municipal area, although it also runs through the Algemesí area. This ravine loses the definition of its channel in Algemesí, becoming a ditch, which empties into the Albufera.

Although the Albufera has its own hydrological basin, the reality is that this only provides a small part of the contributions, while the vast majority of the water comes from the Júcar and Turia rivers (to a lesser extent). In this sense, the Albufera is an integral part of the hydrological scheme of the Júcar river, since it also receives excess water from irrigation through a network of sixty-three ditches. These ditches also collect part of the wastewater discharges from surrounding towns, such as El Romaní. The ditches of the Vega de Valencia take the waters of the Turia river after the Acequia Real de Moncada, taking advantage of the last flows, and leaving their surpluses and runoff for the ditch of Oro and the irrigation of Francos and Marjales de la Albufera de Valencia.

There are also contributions from springs that arise from the bottom and from the surroundings of the lagoon, whose waters are also collected by the network of ditches that cross the rice fields, as well as water from the Pinedo, Quart-Benager and Albufera treatment plants South.

The Ditches

Water pumping from Jucar for the irrigation of Sueca rice pads

Since Roman and Muslim times, the area has had an important network of ditches and canals for irrigation. One of the most important is the Acequia Real del Júcar, which is the irrigation canal that provides water to most of the orchards and rice fields located in the surroundings of the Albufera; its average flow in irrigation periods is 15 m³/s. It drains indirectly into the Albufera, since it provides the excess flows through different channels that flow directly into the lake: l'Alqueresia, Barranquet, La Foia, Nova de Silla and ends at the Albal ditch.

The mother ditch of Sueca, for its part, serves the rice fields in the southern area of the Albufera; its average flow in irrigation periods is 13 m³/s. The water reaches the Albufera through the Nova ditch that ends in the Dreta ditch.

While the Acequia de Favara, one of the eight irrigation channels of the Vega de Valencia that are under the jurisdiction of the Valencia Water Court, irrigates the orchards and fields on the right bank of the old Turia river dominated by this irrigation channel until the Rovella ditch and the rice fields in the northwest of the Albufera de Valencia, ending in the Port de Catarroja channel. Like the Acequia del Oro, which is the last ditch of the Huerta de Valencia, which irrigates the lands on the right bank of the Turia River between the river bed, to the south of it, and the Mediterranean Sea, in most of it is rice paddy land in the northern area of the Albufera Natural Park, its waters ending in the Albufera through the Port de El Saler canal and the Rabisanxo ditch.

History

Training

The origin of the Albufera lake dates back to the beginning of the Pleistocene. Its formation is the result of the closure of an old bay (formed as a consequence of the subsidence of the Valencian plain) by a wide coastline between the Júcar and Turia rivers, that is, between Valencia and Cullera (about 30 km). The definitive separation between the Albufera and the sea occurred during Roman times. At that time, the surface of the lake was much larger (around 30,000 ha) but over the years and due to the interest in obtaining new cultivation areas (especially rice) it has been clogging up, and therefore, decreasing in size. up to the current 2800 ha.

Old Age

Street and canal in El Palmar

The city of Cicana (Sueca) thus called by the Iberians because of the next river that takes its name Sicano (the Jucar) and not far from the scattering of the waters of this, the Turia River surrounds the city of Valentia, more by the side that the land separated from the sea in a long distance, the region offers its backs full of weeds, Behind this runs the Capasia mountain range with a lot of elevation and those bare beaches of vegetation extend to the terms of the Chersoneso ruin. Alongside them the lake of the nacaras (the Albufera) extends and a small island (the Mountain of Saints) that produces olive trees and for this reason is consecrated to Minerva.

Middle and Modern Ages

During the Islamic period of the Peninsula, the emir of Zaragoza, Mostahim, received the Albufera as a prize for his alliance with El Cid in the capture of Valencia.

Fishing was legally recognized since the year 1250, when a group of inhabitants from the then town of Ruzafa (currently from Valencia) moved and settled on the island of El Palmar to be able to fish more easily and comfortably. At the time, this legality was recognized in the towns of Silla and Catarroja. Jaime I was so amazed that he decided that ≪although in the Kingdom, they will be considered outside of it and the city of Valencia, leaving them annexed to the Prince's Patrimony≫.

In 1250, in Morella, after having been included in the assets of the Crown, a privilege was issued on January 21, by which anyone could fish in the lake, on the condition of paying one fifth.

You can find edicts on the Albufera with concessions or ratifications from practically all kings, such as Pedro I, Juan II, Alfonso II, Martín I, Fernando I, Carlos I, Felipe II and Felipe IV, among others.

In 1671, entry into the Albufera, its limits and the Dehesa was prohibited. The description of the fauna shows that it was practically preserved in all its splendor. Carlos III changed the ordinances again and the hunting posts began to be leased, reserving two, Uchana and Rinconcito, for the Captain General and ceding two days a year to whoever wanted to hunt.

Contemporary Age

Portrait of Louis Gabriel, Duke of the Albufera, by Delpech, 1830

By the 19th century, proof was found of the conditions maintained by the Albufera and the impression it made on the French invaders; José Bonaparte, at his own request, granted Marshal Suchet the title of Duke of the Albufera. Suchet was the lord of the lake and its surroundings until 1818, when King Ferdinand VII regained the throne.

It was from the second third of the 19th century when the lake began to narrow due to the practice of burying the lake, to grow rice especially. Little by little, the fauna was reduced at the same rate, and only small game was found.

On May 12, 1865, the lake and the Dehesa became property of the State, ending more than six centuries of royal ownership. In 1911, both the lake and its Dehesa became the property of the city of Valencia, so that all Valencians would be owners of this natural space of great ecological, environmental and landscape value, although the final acquisition was not made until 1927. for a price of 1,062,980'40 pesetas.

In the middle of the XX century, a project was carried out to build the Valencia airport in the surroundings of the Dehesa, and transfer the flights that were carried out in the Malvarrosa there, but finally, due to foundation problems, it was moved to the current location of Manises.

In 1962, the drafting of a plan for the urbanization of Montaña de la Dehesa was authorized, at the same time that the Valencia City Council ceded to the Ministry of Information and Tourism some land for the construction of a hostel and the location of a golf course. In 1967, the Saler Management Plan was approved by the municipality and with it the urbanization process was launched. In 1971, 63 ha were granted to a private company for the exploitation of a racetrack.

Although previously there had been reports by the Royal Spanish Society of Natural History indicating concern for the future of the natural environment of the Albufera, it was at the beginning of the 1970s when the denunciations by Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente in television produced the first public controversies. Due to these and their echo among biologists, journalists and the incipient environmental movement, in 1973 the City Council suspended the auctions of plots. In 1974, the council halved the planned buildable area.

During the Transition, political forces and neighborhood associations insisted on the public use of the Albufera and the Dehesa. Of 852 planned ha, only 40 destined for roads were urbanized. With the advent of democratic councils in 1979 there was a turn towards a more protectionist and conservationist policy.

Environmental and landscape units

La Dehesa del Saler

Artificial Lake, Saler Dehesa

Playa de la Dehesa del Saler

La Dehesa del Saler, located on the wide sandbank that extends between the mouths of the Turia and Júcar, is part of the primitive coastal arrow that caused the closure of the Albufera de Valencia. It is currently one of the most interesting coastal phenomena in the Iberian Peninsula, both for its extension and for being one of the few still functional marsh sedimentary environments.

A decisive factor in the evolution of the coast would be the coastal drift, which follows the direction, predominantly, from North to South with sufficient intensity to drag the sediments brought by the rivers. Wind action also contributes to the formation of dunes and to reinforce the thickness and width of the sandbank that separates the sea from the lake. The sandbank has been formed in two stages: in the first period the part of the marsh and the field of dunes closest to the Albufera were formed; while the maritime dune field and beaches have been formed later (since the Bronze Age).

Originally, the Albufera communicated with the sea through one or several wide mouths (golas in Valencian) that sometimes would drain the continental waters of the lake, and other times would give way to the brackish waters of the sea. Currently, the Albufera is connected to the sea through three channels: the gola de Puchol, the gola del Perellonet and the gola del Perelló.

Intradune depressions (meshed)

Between the two sets of dunes and occasionally within them, there are depressed areas characterized by poorly permeable soils and the presence of the water table close to its surface. The malladas and salt marshes have suffered processes of anthropic degradation with siltation, drying up and drainage that have affected them significantly. Despite this, there are still some malladas in good condition and with characteristic fauna and flora, including the fartet or the samarugo.

The Marsh

Rice fields in the marjal

The marsh is the land that used to be part of the lake and is now dedicated to growing rice. Its nearly 14,000 hectares are the largest area of the park, representing the flat areas prone to flooding and forming an agricultural landscape with great historical significance in the Valencian context. Although it is an anthropized environment and subjected to an intensive exploitation regime, the rice field constitutes an essential habitat for the functioning of the ecological system of the Albufera and a traditional economic activity of the population of the area.

The rice paddy confers a clear seasonality to the entire system, with the alternating flooding/drying of the fields and the growth of the plant, which make the extension and characteristics of the flooded surface vary considerably, configuring in an ecological sense as a Temporary lagoon that floods in autumn and dries up in spring, and as a growing area in summer.

The springs (ullals)

A ullal (manantial)

The ullals are the springs that we find along the Albufera marsh. In these springs we find autochthonous fauna such as the samarugo and the fartet, in the same way that we find both aquatic, marshy and riverside vegetation.

Thus, the most important values of the ullals are the presence of invertebrates endemic to the park, one of the best preserved freshwater aquatic vegetation on the peninsula, being the habitat of several endangered fish, and being the main source of clean water that drains into the lake.

Throughout the entire marsh there are about 50 springs, which can be in various states of conservation. Some, such as the Ullal Gros (big spring), the Ullal de Baldoví, the Laguna del Samarugo or the Ullals de Senillera, are in very good condition, and have populations of plant and animal species in danger of extinction while the springs that we find in the municipalities of Huerta Sur are very degraded.

The Lake

Boats on the lake

The lake extends about 10 kilometers from the city of Valencia to the southeast. It is the largest in the country, it is separated from the sea by a dune belt settled by the roots of a series of pine trees, adapted to this situation, and by a great abundance of low scrub. In the past, the crystalline waters made it possible to see the bottom, and its waters were consumed without problems by fishermen, especially in the ullals.

Even today we can enjoy the boats propelled by lateen sails, and by the so-called ≪perchas≫ (an elongated stick with which the boatman propelled the boat resting on the lake floor) or oars, today also with a motor, these boats which are among the oldest in their way of sailing, since the LATEEN SAIL is one of the oldest known forms of navigation. During the best weather season, the different Lateen Sailing associations such as Catarroja, El Palmar, Silla or Sollana offer exhibitions of this sailing on Saturdays.

Today the lake has shrunk to about a third of what it was in the XIX century, when it reached Valencia, known as Cruz de la Conquista, and extended to Sueca, to a place called Montanyeta dels Sants. Already at the beginning of the XX century its surface had been reduced to 7 by 6 kilometers from 17 by 6 100 years earlier. Pérez Escrich affirmed that in 1930 it had 9 leagues in circumference.

This allowed it to be an effective means of communication between the different towns and the capital, with regular transportation.

The Sierra de las Zorras, Cullera

In 1909, Emilio Sarzo, in his book on aquatic hunting, the Albufera and the Calderería, recounted that the depth was very uneven, in some places the aquatic plants were very close to the surface and in other places there were 3 or 4 fathoms deep. At present, the Albufera is in a clogging period, due to the numerous contributions it receives from the ravines in its western part. Its average depth is less than one meter, although in some points it can reach 130 centimeters.

The Mount

Although El Monte is scarcely represented, it is worth noting the reliefs of Cretaceous origin located in the municipality of Cullera (El Cabezol and the Montaña de los Zorros) and in the municipality of Sueca (Montaña de los Santos).

The main environmental value lies in its role as a landscape landmark. The Monte represents an islet of arboreal vegetation of singular beauty in the middle of the homogeneous plain of the marsh, standing out on the horizon from any corner of the park.

Ecology

Vegetation

PalmitoChamaerops humilis)

The plant species that exist in the Dehesa are included in the following communities: coastal dunes, salt marshes, maquis and Mediterranean forest, and marsh formations.

In the case of the coastal dunes (closer to the sea), the presence of pioneer species typical of mobile dunes such as the dune grass or the sea bell and fixed dunes such as the buckthorn or the mastic stand out.

Salt accumulates in the malladas, which is why the plants that live here are adapted to high salt concentrations, hence the name salt marshes. They are usually succulent vegetables, such as salty grass and barrilla.

La Maquia and the Mediterranean forest is made up of tree and shrub species such as Aleppo pine, tamarisk, mastic, juniper and kermes oak, as well as myrtle, thyme, gorse, rosemary, satureja and palm heart.

Lastly, always in contact with the Albufera lake and the different canals and ditches, marsh communities develop, among which reeds, cattails, mansiegas and reeds predominate, which sink their roots into fresh water or wet mud.

Wildlife

Common stork (Himantopus heantopus himantopus)

The lake has a great diversity of animals in its environment. Although some species of fish can be highlighted, such as the fartet and the samarugo, as they are two species of fish in danger of extinction, the recent appearance of the slugfish Blennius fluviatilis, and the eel, mullet and sea bass due to their economic importance.

Although, without a doubt, this park is known for its extraordinary richness in poultry, among which the red duck stands out among the ducks with up to 10,000 specimens, the common shoveler with up to 20,000 specimens or the mallard.

The heron colonies are also noteworthy, being able to review the cattle egret, the squacco egret or the gray heron.

Lastly, the presence of species such as the common tern, the Sandwich tern, the common stilt, the marbled teal or the seagull is noteworthy.

Samarugo Reserves

The samarugo (Valencia hispanica) or samaruc in Valencian, is a native fish of the Iberian Mediterranean coast that is in danger of extinction due to the destruction of its habitat, For this reason, a series of reserves have been created in which this small fish is bred. The reserves, located in the area of the Albufera natural park, are distributed throughout the marsh area of the park, regenerated springs.

These reserves also try to recover other organisms, the white water lily, the utricularia (a carnivorous plant), the Marsilea quadrifolia, the trencadalla, etc. Other animal species to be recovered are the fartet, the comilleja (mossegadoret) and the gabacha shrimp. The main samarugo reserve is the artificial ullal that has been created in the municipality of Algemesí, in the Partida del Barranquet.

Traditional Activities

The Hunt

In the shallow areas known as alterons is where the firing points are located, since hunting is one of the historical activities of the area. Some chroniclers point out that already in Muslim times it was a royal hunting area, and later, after the conquest, it became the property of Jaime I and his successors.

Such was the richness of the area between the Grao de Valencia and Cullera, that according to the Valencian botanist Cavanilles and other chroniclers from different eras, there was an abundance of deer, wild boar, mountain goats, francolins, partridges, hares, rabbits, otters and up to sixty varieties of aquatic birds, as well as an enormous amount of fish. As ≪A corner of Paradise≫ they defined it in the middle of the 13th century.

The hunting outside the limits of the lake is relatively recent, having as a precedent the annual shooting that was held in the Laguna de San Lorenzo de Cullera since 1830; this shooting was carried out at the end of November, shooting was prohibited from September 1 in order to allow the number of birds in the area to recover.

Currently, hunting is practiced under a ≪closed season≫ regime in Sueca, Cullera and Silla, carrying out eight shots each season on Saturdays, between the end of November and mid-January. The Sollana reserve deserves special mention, since its importance was greater than that of Silla; however, rolls are no longer made on it. Traditionally, at the end of the shootings in the ≪vedados≫, the càbiles were held, in which hunting was carried out for eight or ten consecutive days and any member of the hunting societies in their respective preserve could participate.

The hunting structure of the park, the hunting grounds, has a rice paddy area of 13,259 hectares, of which 4,201 correspond to the ≪preserved fields≫.

Fishing

Traditional Albufera Fisherman

The Muslims were already exploiting the wealth of fish in the Albufera. After the Reconquest, the various Aragonese and Spanish monarchs who owned the Albufera also obtained their benefits by keeping a fifth of all that was caught in the lake. In 1857 the fishing activity began to be regulated in a more orderly manner and in keeping with the times. The first treaties were signed with the different fishing associations in the area to ensure that the taxes were paid in cash and not in kind.

Today, as a consequence of the excessive exploitation and contamination of the waters, and the inadequate regulation of the Pujol gates that prevent the natural exchange of species with the sea, fishing activity is only maintained thanks to the fight. The other two species, eel and sea bass, have been gradually disappearing.

Agriculture

Fangueo tasks in rice fields in marjal, Swedish

The agriculture of the Albufera is fundamentally rice. The Albufera has evolved together with this crop since times even before Jaime I (since rice was introduced by the Arabs). In the Albufera, rice cultivation has been prohibited and authorized several times since the 15th century, since the need for large areas with stagnant water meant a dangerous source of infection for the population.

The procedure used to raise the level of the land and put it under cultivation consisted of making, first of all, a speck or margin of land that protruded from the level of the lake, delimiting the plot from the rest of the lake. Subsequently, the mud was carried by boats (albuferencs) until the land in the plot was sufficiently raised and made suitable for growing rice.

The rice produced in the natural park is almost entirely of the type called ≪round≫ or ≪bomba≫, mainly the bay variety.

However, there was also another activity, which consisted of obtaining mud from the bottom of the lagoon, which was used for construction. The process was tedious and sacrificed, since a kind of hoe with a handle long enough to reach the bottom of the lagoon was used. This material was transported to the city through the canals that led inland from the lagoon.

Environmental problems

The Albufera, like all wetlands, are very sensitive areas, which is why they are seriously affected by different problems such as water pollution, disturbance of the water regime -mainly in relation to the springs-, the siltation of the marsh, the urbanization in the dune system, the industrial pressure around the park -fundamentally in the municipalities of Huerta Sur and the city of Valencia-, the negative impacts generated by the different infrastructures, such as roads or the port of Valencia, as well as by the increase in tourist and recreational pressure. All this has caused the water in the Albufera to become 80% more cloudy than years ago.