Article · 4 March 2022
The GUARDIAN project Journal N° 1 Project led by the Cities of Riba-Roja de Turia and Paterna
In the first GUARDIAN Journal, UIA expert Elsa Pastor presents the project’s approach to reducing peri-urban fire risk with reclaimed water.
Elsa Pastor
The GUARDIAN project addresses the increasing risk of peri-urban fire as a result of climate change, particularly prominent in the Mediterannean basin. The project aim is to improve the resilience of the affected peri-urban areas by reducing risk fire and limit its expansion to inhabited areas. To do so it will test an integrated set of actions combining preventive, pre-defensive and defensive irrigation with vegetation transformation, automated monitoring and self-defense training for the population in the affected areas. In the wildland area of La Vallesa, located in the two neighbour cities of Riba-Roja de Turia and Paterna, the partnership will develop a prevention and protection system covering all the cycle of fire risk management through the creation of transitional ‘green belts’ reusing treated waters. Based on a network of sensors, a monitoring and command system will be developed to calculate the amount and spatial distribution of irrigation to compensate soil moisture deficit, and will automatically deliver it to prevent and protect fires.
A replicable solution
GUARDIAN shows that reclaimed water can protect the wildland-urban interface. Let us know if you would like to apply it in your municipality.