On December 3, the Urban River Lab (URL) commemorated its 10th anniversary with a special event: facilities featuring artificial channels and ponds that simulate the processes occurring in urban rivers and test different nature-based solutions aimed at improving both water quality and ecological health.
The Margarida Xirgu Theatre in Montornès del Vallès hosted the event. Researchers presented an overview, to more than one hundred attendees, of the knowledge gained during this decade of experimentation at the URL. Among other findings, they highlighted that native riparian vegetation (such as rushes, reeds, or yellow irises) and substrates like sand, gravel, or stones (and especially the microorganisms living in them) contribute to water quality improvement. These natural materials provide secondary water treatment, with each being more effective for specific types of pollutants, thereby demonstrating the importance of combining them. The experiments have used water from the Montornès wastewater treatment plant, located next to the URL.
The session also showcased nature-based solutions successfully tested for restoring river ecosystems. Notable examples include the design of ponds and “gardens”—natural systems with local vegetation and sediments that collect water from wastewater treatment plants before it flows into rivers, retaining it for further filtration. Such measures help return cleaner water to nature and gradually restore heavily degraded ecosystems, like Mediterranean urban rivers, which suffer greatly from human pressures.
After the talks and panel discussion, all attendees visited the URL facilities to see them firsthand.
The Urban River Lab: A pioneering and reference laboratory
The URL was established in 2014, becoming the first laboratory of its kind in Spain and a unique one in also Europe. Over the years, alongside research conducted by teams from Catalonia and across Spain, around 50 researchers from around the world have carried out experiments and academic studies there, resulting in scientific articles published in renowned journals.
The site is part of the European research project INTERFACES (Marie Curie Actions Initial Training Networks ITN of the European Union) and has been promoted by the Ecology Department of the University of Barcelona (UB), the Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes (CEAB), the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Naturalea-Conservació SL, the Besòs Tordera Consortium, the Montornès del Vallès City Council, and the Cleanleach project.
Additional information:
–Urban River Lab video
–Urban River Lab web
L'entrada The Urban River Lab celebrates 10 years of work restoring the ecological state of rivers ha aparegut primer a CEAB.
