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Bringing Together
Foresight.
And Insight
Floodability and Landscape Architecture, with regard to DANA Valencia
February 21, 2025
Article authored by:
Marina Avilés Olmos | LAI Madrid Chapter Secretary & LAI Global Water and Land Series Group Member
Marina´s career as an architect started working and researching in leading daylighting strategies, specializing in day- and artificial lighting planning and then expanding to a sustainable holistic approach. Her latest work is based on the circular economy in the building sector.
On Monday, January 27, the LAI Madrid Chapter hosted its first luncheon in 2025. After the floodings in Valencia caused by the DANA a few months ago, our speakers were Jesús Arcos y Margarita Jover, director and co-founder by aldayjover arquitectura y paisaje, a leading landscape architecture office with a wide expertise in urban and building projects in floodable areas.
How can we transform an urgent need for flood mitigation into embracing an opportunity for creating urban space? How can we demystify the notion of catastrophe into the idea of improving the relationship between cities and rivers? Answering these questions, Jesús Arcos and Margarita Jover, exposed to the audience their approach as a multidisciplinary team, based on understanding the specific nature of the site, research and innovation, through some of their main projects.
What triggered our chapter to promote a conversation about floodability? The DANA caused an extraordinary episode of rainfall in Valencia in October 2024. Some sites recorded 771 l/m2 in 24 hours, of which 185 fell in one hour. The rainfall of an entire year concentrated in a few hours, the rainiest month on record according to the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge. Together with this event, how many more places are being affected by increasing floodings and which solutions are urban planners and landscape architects providing?
aldayjover architecture y paisaje has been recognized internationally for its pioneering urban planning and projects in floodable urban areas along rivers, in which natural dynamics and floodings engage with public space and urban infrastructure. Authors of the Water Park of the Zaragoza International Expo 2008, with this project they burst on to the international landscape architecture scene. This land in the meander of the river Ebro is a first class example of transformation of a floodable area which was preventing the growth of the city in its direction, into one of the most visited parks of the city. It contains the necessary strategies for continuing being livable after recurrent floods, and for slowing the speed of the floodings into the city though the riverbed.
The presentation accompanying this talk can be found in this LINK.
For the Spanish version of this keynote click HERE
Future LAI Events on this topic
A webinar on increased global flooding, including this topic, is scheduled for a LAI Global Water/Land Series Group webinar in May/June 2025.
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Flooding photo with the Water Park project for the International Expo Zaragoza 2008. In the picture below, the meandre of the Ebro river where the Water Park is located, a floodable park with planning strategies to reduce the speed of the floods into the water channel entering the city. (Image courtesy of aldayjover) |
 Luncheon meeting with Jesús Arcos presenting the Water Park project in Zaragoza, in our meeting room of the Meliá Princesa Hotel in Madrid |
 The appetizer room with the attendees in the background and the LAI Madrid Board in the front |
 Our two new inducted LAI Madrid members, Alberto Yagüe (Business Development Director at aLL Global Project Management) and Tegan Smith (CEO at Channer Consulting, our Canadian member, who keeps her membership in the LAI Vancouver Chapter and will also be a LAI Madrid Chapter member during her stay in Spain) |
Unless otherwise indicated, all images are courtesy of Marina Avilés
Keynotes are submitted by LAI members. Many submissions reflect the author’s professional opinions and views on relevant issues concerning the organizational mission and purpose of LAI. LAI, as an organization, does not take a position on Keynote submissions, and supports providing an open forum of ideas forwarded for thoughtful consideration. Submissions should not be construed as LAI endorsements.