Nature-based Solutions research

SbN

The Nature-based Solutions research group is based on its work on constructed wetlands that began in 2008 with support for the development of the Tancat de la Pipa (Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar) and Tancat de Milia (ACUAMED) wetlands in the Albufera Natural Park of Valencia. Since then it has continued to develop its activity in these solutions for the treatment of urban wastewater from small municipalities, focusing on its use as an element for the improvement of aquatic biodiversity.

From 2013, collaborating in projects of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) coordinated by the Hydraulics and Hydrology group, the scope of work is extended to everything that would be called green-blue infrastructure in the field of civil-environmental engineering. Permeable pavements, vegetated roofs, rain gardens and constructed wetlands, of various types, are the key elements of the research in this group. In fact, almost 50% of its research is carried out in the field of SUDS; Specifically, in those aspects related to changes in the quality of the waters of urban runoff that are capable of managing these green-blue infrastructures. The synthesis of urban drainage with constructed wetlands is exemplified very well in the Tancat de la Pipa wetland, whose role in mitigating urban runoff from nearby areas is being studied in the framework of national projects.

The group has an 80 m2 laboratory where it carries out laboratory tests and small pilots, as well as analysis of the quality of water, sediments and helophyte vegetation within the framework of its research projects. It offers support to companies and administrations in the implementation of these nature-based solutions, the use of infrastructures as elements for the environmental recovery of degraded areas, the reduction of microbiological pollution from urban runoff, etc. The research is supported by experimental data and mathematical models of water quality, both statistical and mechanistic, including hydraulic modelling using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in collaboration with the Hydraulics Laboratory of the Hydraulics and Hydrology group.

The collaboration of the group with entities and organizations of Latin American countries through the AECID and the UPV’s own cooperation programs is another of the main activities of the group, maintaining collaborations with universities and NGOs in Colombia, Chile and Peru, always within the framework of solutions for water treatment in small communities through treatment wetlands.

Research lines of SbN