With the contribution of the LIFE financial instrument of the European Union. LIFE20 ENV/EN/000327
The month of May has been full of actions to enhance the relationship with the riparian population of the Ebro and its river and with the knowledge about floods. The LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project, within the social capacity building program, has launched activities for different audiences that have gathered more than 150 people and that:
- encourage participation
- connect people
- encourage interest in flood risk mitigation measures and tools for self-protection in the event of extreme events
- they imply a return of more knowledge about the territory and the local reality and the perception about the measures for the technical team of LIFE Ebro Resilience P1.
All of them include a time for analysis, evaluation or exchange which allows to gather feedback on the actions underway to reduce the risk of flooding and also to open new ways of participation and information transmission.
General public
In collaboration with the municipalities of Alfaro (La Rioja) and Castejón (Navarra), on Saturday, May 24 we organized an activity that combines recreational and informative activities for the riverside population in the middle stretch of the Ebro, a popularinterpretive descent of the Ebro River between the two towns.
It was a fantastic morning of exchange, of getting to know the river from a new perspective and learning. In addition to visiting the interventions in the meander of La Roza or the Soto de Alfaro while sailing in an inflatable boat, we deployed the field game on land management and shared impressions, ideas and unified concepts, such as flood risk.
In autumn we will resume this proposal open to the entire population, an activity that we already enjoyed a few months ago in the area of Osera de Ebro – Fuentes de Ebro.
Also open to the entire population was the interpretive route that we organized on the occasion of the global celebration of WalkingRivers 2025 on May 17.
The Ebro Resilience Strategy and the LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project offered a circular route through Alcalá de Ebro and passing through Remolinos (Zaragoza) to talk about the adaptation actions being carried out in this and other stretches, but also to recover legends (we told the story of the Ínsula Barataria of Don Quixote that takes us to this Aragonese town), to have fun and to make a short descent with EbroNautas to connect with the environmental values of the river.
And for all audiences is our traveling photo exhibition When the river recovers its space: nature-based solutions to the floods which during this month of May (and will continue until June 29th), can be visited at the Palacio de los Marqueses de Ayerbe in the visitor center of the Natural Area of La Alfranca, in Zaragoza.
During the summer the exhibition will travel to the interpretation center of the Sotos de Alfaro, in La Rioja.
Education sector
The LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 project works with the education sector on several lines and has carried out informative descents in different sections with teachers from Aragón and La Rioja (it is also pending with Navarra) and with secondary school students from the secondary schools in the intervention areas, but this May it has been done for the first time with the families of the schoolchildren.
Together with CRA la Sabina, a rural school based in Villafranca de Ebro, Osera de Ebro, Nuez de Ebro, Farlete and Monegrillo, we went out to the river to see, explore and learn and also to listen to their stories and comments.
Technical sector
The meander of La Roza, in Alfaro, La Rioja, where a morphological adaptation and environmental restoration has been carried out, and the Alfaro woodland, where the connectivity of the woodland with the river has been improved through the opening of old branches, were the scene of a visit by future forestry engineers and specialists in environmental restoration.
In LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 we received the visit of students from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, specifically a group of students from the Masters in Forestry Engineering and Ecosystem Restoration to talk about nature-based solutions (recovery of river space, through the relocation of motes; creation of relief channels; recovery of disconnected channels and recovery of riparian groves, among others).
Storytelling and slogan contest
In the Project we also have the story The Colors of the Ebro, specific material for kindergarten and first cycle of primary school that has reached the centers in the intervention areas, but has also visited libraries.
In March we did the first storytelling in the Green Library of the City Council of Zaragoza, the CDAMZ and we repeated with another experience in the Library of Castejón, Navarra. Thanks to the Culture Department of the City Council for proposing this activity and for complementing it with a slogan contest about the Ebro River that gave us fantastic ideas, all of them from first and second grade students.
With this phrase as the winner, El Ebro caudaloso makes Castejón beautiful. Laia Ovejas.
The strengthening of social capacities is a central element to improve social resilience to floods and the self-protection of the riparian population. Vulnerability is part of risk, and capacities are part of vulnerability. If we strengthen capacities, we reduce risk.
Learn about our social capacity building program, campaigns and materials.