The Floodable Park “La Marjal” (Alicante, South East Spain) as a Paradigmatic Example of Water Reuse and Circular Economy

Abstract

Nowadays, the south-east of Spain has several problems of water supply due to high agricultural, urban, industries, and so one water demands. In addition, this sensible area has limited precipitations, high temperatures and evapotranspiration rates. At the same time, in many places, the urban growth has been poorly organized. Usually, some areas are subjected to the effects of flash floods caused by heavy and concentrated rainfalls. In this work, we analyse the evolution of the floodable park “La Marjal” (Alicante, SE Spain) since its construction two years ago as a solution to reduce the mentioned problems. This floodable park, the first constructed in Spain and the second in Europe, cost 3.3 M€ and presents a total water volume of 45,000 m3. The park gets to avoid typical flash floods in San Juan urban area and provides storage of water to reuse it in irrigation of urban parks and gardens, countries, street cleaning, and other uses.