During the first half of 2026, about 100 secondary school students and teachers participated in interpretive river trips down the Ebro River organized by the LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project. In this edition, students from IES Gonzalo de Berceo in Alfaro (La Rioja) and IESO Castejón (Navarra)—two municipalities located within the project’s area of operation—participated in three trips.
The initiative is now in its third year and has become a regular feature on the school calendar of participating schools. Joining them is IES Benjamín Jarnés in Fuentes de Ebro (Zaragoza)—another of the project’s target areas—which has participated in previous editions, thereby strengthening a stable partnership between the project and the educational community in the riverine areas.
Far from being a conventional field trip, these river trips turn the river into an outdoor classroom where students learn to observe, interpret, and understand the local area from a hands-on perspective. Boating provides a firsthand look at how the Ebro River functions, allows students to discover its biodiversity, helps them identify the ecological value of the riverine groves, and enables them to understand how the restoration of the riverine habitat helps reduce the risk of flooding.
Throughout the day, the recreational aspect—which involves direct contact with nature— and the enjoyment of the river, are combined with participatory activities, games, and group exercises to explain concepts such as land-use planning, river restoration, adaptation to, and coexistence with floodwaters—all of which are crucial for the residents of the towns along the middle reaches of the Ebro River.
This field trip allows students to observe the river’s dynamics firsthand, reflect on the risk of flooding, and understand that flooding is a natural part of the Ebro River’s cycle.
Capacity building
Interpretive tours are one of the most visible activities of the social capacity-building program carried out by the LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project, in this case, in partnership with the education sector.
This initiative is complemented by educational units on flooding, risk management, and resilience; educational kits containing specific materials, which have already been distributed to schools in La Rioja, Navarre, and Aragon; and teacher training programs—both in-person and online—that include content on the phenomenon of flooding and the solutions promoted by the project.
Through this set of actions, LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 aims to improve knowledge of the region, promote self-protection, and help build a community that is better prepared to coexist with a dynamic river
An open experience
These interpretive tours are not limited to the school setting. Throughout the project, local residents, representatives from relevant sectors, technical staff from various government agencies, and college students also participate.
Among this year’s activities, in addition to the public river descents, the participation of students from the Bachelor’s Degree in Geography and Land Use Planning at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU)—as part of the “Water and Planning” course—stands out. During the tour, they were able to observe firsthand various river restoration projects, nature-based solutions, and flood risk adaptation strategies implemented as part of the LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 project.
These types of events provide an opportunity to bring together public administration, research, and academia, fostering exchange among those who will be the future professionals in river restoration, land-use planning, and risk management in the coming decades.
LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project
The LIFE Ebro Resilience P1 Project, which receives financial support from the European Commission’s LIFE Program, is an innovative initiative to address the issue of flooding in the middle reaches of the Ebro River, with a clear objective: to ensure that the population and economic activities coexist with an Ebro River in a good state of conservation, while reducing the damage associated with floods that are part of the river’s natural dynamics.
The project is led by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Ebro River Basin Authority (CHE), in collaboration with the public companies TRAGSA and TRAGSATEC, the Government of La Rioja, the Government of Navarre—through Orekan-Gestión Ambiental de Navarra—the Government of Aragon, and the Aragonese Water Institute.