Albufera Natural Park

The Albufera Natural Park (in Valencian Parc Natural de l'Albufera) or simply La Albufera (from the Arabic البحيرة al-Buḥayra, "the lake") is a Spanish protected natural area located in the province of Valencia, Valencian Community. It was also known by the Romans as Nacarum Stagnum and in some Arabic poems it is called Mirror of the Sun. This 21,120 ha site, which was declared a natural park by the Generalitat Valenciana on July 8, 1986, is located about 10 km south of the city of Valencia. It includes the Albufera, its wetlands and the coastal cordon adjacent to both. On October 23, 1990, the Special Protection Plan document for the Natural Park was approved (currently repealed by the Supreme Court of Spain) and Decree 96/1995, of May 16, 1995, approved the Natural Resources Management Plan (PORN, Plan de Ordenación de los Recursos Naturales) of the Albufera Hydrographic Basin. On November 19, 2004, Decree 259/2004 was approved by the Council of the Generalitat Valenciana, establishing the Albufera Master Plan for Use and Management (PRUG, Plan Rector de Uso y Gestión). In 1902, the Valencian writer Vicente Blasco Ibáñez wrote the novel Cañas y barro, set in the Albufera at the beginning of the 20th century. The Albufera of Valencia is a shallow coastal lagoon (average depth of 1 m) located on the Mediterranean coast south of the city of Valencia. It occupies an area of 23.94 km2 and is surrounded by 223 km2 of rice fields. Its hydrographic basin extends over 917.1 km2, from sea level to an altitude of about 1000 height above mean sea level. It is separated from the sea by a narrow sandy coastal bar (restinga) with dunes stabilized by a pine forest (Dehesa del Saler). The Albufera is an area of passage for many species of Bird migration. Its ecological value is very great because here you can find species of great ecological value in danger of extinction, such as the fartet or the samaruc. It is also one of the few lagoons that are preserved in good condition in the Valencian Community, whose coast was formerly formed by a succession of lagoons and marshes. Today you can still see the succession of marshes all along the Valencian coast, although smaller than the Albufera of Valencia, from the Marsh of Pego-Oliva, the marsh of Jaraco, the Marsh of Rafalell and Vistabella in the Valencian district of Rafalell and Vistabella, the Marjal del Moro in Puzol-Sagunto, or the Marsh of Almenara, among others.

Municipalities included
The set of municipalities that comprise the territory of the Albufera natural park is divided into four regions, Ribera Alta, Ribera Baja, Horta Sud and the City of Valencia, and many of these municipalities have districts within the territorial scope of the natural park. There are 13 municipalities within the park.

Communication routes


The main access road to the park is the El Saler highway (V-15) that starts in Valencia and crosses the park from north to south as far as El Saler, where it extends as a conventional road to Sueca (CV-500), and in Les Palmeres it connects with the CV-502 road, which goes to Cullera. Another access road to the northern part of the natural park is the CV-401, which runs from the commercial area of Alfafar to the Valencian district of El Saler. To the southwest of the park runs the N-332, which crosses the park from Sollana to Sueca, although work is currently underway to convert this road into the Valencia-Almería highway along the coast. Also important are the urban highways of Silla (V-31) and Valencia's southern ring road (V-30), which serve as the park's artificial border. In addition to these roads, the Albufera natural park is crossed by countless rural roads and drovers' road, which connect the various areas of the park and the different towns in the area. There are also several river ports, such as those of Catarroja, El Tremolar, Silla and Sollana, as well as piers in El Palmar and El Saler.

Climate
Its climate is Mediterranean, mild, with an average annual humidity of 65%. Its average temperature is 17.8 °C. As the graph shows, its average values range from 11.5 °C in January to 25.5 °C in August. Rainfall is 454 mm per year. They are usually of great intensity and concentrated in autumn, a phenomenon known as cold drop. Observatory of the city of Valencia. Altitude 11 m. Latitude 39 28 48. Longitude 0 22 52.

Hydrography
The basin flows into the Albufera through various ravines or wadis. The most important ones are: Rambla del Poyo (also known as Torrente ravine, Massanassa ravine or Chiva ravine), whose basin is 367.6 km2 (40% of the total basin); Barranco de Picasent (also known as Beniparrell ravine); Barranc dels Algadins has a basin area of 23 km2, and most of its basin is located in the municipality of Alginet, although it also runs through the municipality of Algemesí. This ravine loses the definition of its course in Algemesí, becoming an acequia, which drains into the Albufera. Although the Albufera has its own hydrological basin, the reality is that this only provides a small part of the contributions, while the vast majority of the water arrives from the Júcar and Turia rivers (to a lesser extent). In this sense, the Albufera is an integral part of the hydrological scheme of the Júcar river, as it also receives, through a network of sixty-three acequia, the water left over from irrigation. These acequia also collect part of the wastewater discharges from surrounding towns, such as El Romaní. The acequia of the Vega de Valencia take the waters of the Turia river after the Acequia Real de Moncada, taking advantage of the last flows, and leaving their surplus and runoff for the acequia del Oro and the irrigated lands of Francos and Marjales de la Albufera de Valencia. In addition, there are also contributions from springs that arise from the bottom and the surroundings of the lagoon, whose waters are also collected by the network of acequia that cross the rice fields, as well as the water from the Pinedo, Quart-Benager and Albufera Sur wastewater treatment plants.

Acequias
Since Roman and Muslim times, the area has had an important network of acequias and canals. One of the most important is the Acequia Real del Júcar, which is the acequia that provides water to most of the orchards and rice fields located around the Albufera; its average flow during the irrigation periods is 15 m³/s. It drains indirectly into the Albufera, as it brings the excess flows through different channels that flow directly into the lake: l'Alqueresia, Barranquet, La Foia, Nova de Silla and ends in the Albal acequia. The Sueca mother acequia, on the other hand, serves the rice fields in the southern part of the Albufera; its average flow during irrigation periods is 13 m³/s. The water reaches the Albufera through the Nova acequia, which ends in the Dreta acequia. While the Acequia de Favara, one of the eight acequia of the Vega de Valencia that are under the jurisdiction of the Water Tribunal of the plain of Valencia, irrigates the orchards and fields on the right bank of the old Turia River dominated by this acequia up to the acequia de Rovella and the rice fields of the northwest of the Albufera of Valencia, ending in the canal of the Port of Catarroja. As well as the Acequia del Oro, which is the last acequia of the Horta of Valencia, which irrigates the lands on the right bank of the Turia River between the river bed, south of it, and the Mediterranean Sea, mostly rice fields in the northern part of the Albufera Natural Park, ending its waters in the Albufera through the Port de El Saler canal and the Rabisanxo acequia.

Formation
The origin of the Albufera lake dates back to the beginning of the Pleistocene. Its formation is the result of the closure of an ancient bay (formed as a consequence of the sinking of the Valencian plain) by a wide spit between the Júcar and Turia rivers, that is, between Valencia and Cullera (about 30 km). The definitive separation between the Albufera and the sea occurred during Roman period. Then the surface of the lake was much larger (around 30,000 ha) but over the years and due to the interest in obtaining new areas for cultivation (especially rice) has been clogging, and therefore, decreasing in size to the current 2800 ha.

Ancient Age
"The city of Cicana (Sueca), so called by the Iberians because of the next river that takes its name Sicano (the Júcar) and not far from the spilling of the waters of this one, the river Turia surrounds the city of Valentia, more for the part that the land turns away from the sea for a long distance, the region offers to the sight its back full of weeds, there lived there grazing numerous herds the beribraces, muzzled and fierce people that feeding with milk and substantial cheese lived robustly in the manner of wild beasts. Behind this runs the Capasia mountain range with much elevation and those beaches bare of vegetation extend to the terms of the ruined Chersoneso. Next to them extends the lake of the mother-of-pearl (the Albufera) and in the middle of it rises a small island (the Montaña de los Santos) that produces olive trees and for this reason is consecrated to Minerva."

Middle Ages and Modern Times
During the Islamic period in the Peninsula, the emir of Zaragoza, Mostahim, received the Albufera as a reward for his alliance with El Cid for the capture of Valencia. Fishing was legally recognized from the year 1250, when a group of inhabitants of the then town of Ruzafa (now Valencia) moved and settled on the island of El Palmar to be able to fish in a simpler and more comfortable way. In time, this legality was recognized in the towns of Silla and Catarroja. Jaime I was so amazed that he decided that "although in the Kingdom, they would be considered outside the Kingdom and outside the boundaries of the city of Valencia, they will be left annexed to the Prince's Estate". In 1250, in Morella, after being included in the assets of the Crown, a privilege was issued on January 21, by which anyone could fish in the lake, with the condition of paying a fifth part. Edicts on the Albufera can be found with concessions or ratifications of practically all the kings, such as Peter I, John II, Alfonso II, Martin I, Ferdinand I, Charles I, Philip II and Philip IV, among others. In 1671, entry into the Albufera, its boundaries and the Dehesa was prohibited. The description of the fauna shows that it was practically preserved in all its splendor. Charles III changed the ordinances again and hunting posts began to be leased, reserving two, Uchana and Rinconcito, for the Captain general and granting two days a year to anyone who wanted to hunt.

Contemporary Age
When the 19th century arrived, there was proof of the conditions maintained by the Albufera and the impression it made on the French invaders; Joseph Bonaparte, at his own request, granted Marshal Suchet the title of Duke of the Albufera. Suchet was the lord of the lake and its surroundings until 1818, when King Ferdinand VII regained the throne. It was from the second third of the 9th century when the lake began to narrow due to the practice of burying the lake, especially to grow rice. The fauna was gradually reduced at the same pace, with only small game being found. On May 12, 1865, the lake and the Dehesa became State property, ending more than six centuries of royal ownership. In 1911, both the lake and the Dehesa became the property of the city of Valencia, so that all Valencians were owners of this natural area of great ecological, environmental and landscape value, although the final acquisition was not made until 1927, for a price of 1,062,980.40 pesetas. In the mid 20th century, there was a project to build the airport of Valencia in the surroundings of the Dehesa, and move there the flights that were carried out in the Malvarrosa, but finally, due to foundation problems, the location was moved to the current location of Manises. In 1962, the drafting of a plan for the urbanization of the Montaña de la Dehesa was authorized, at the same time that the Valencia City Council ceded to the Ministry of Information and Tourism some land for the construction of a Parador and the location of a golf course. In 1967, the Saler Management Plan was approved by the municipality and the urbanization process was launched. In 1971, 63 hectares were granted to a private company for the operation of a horse racing. Although previously there had already been reports by the Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural (Royal Spanish Society of Natural History) pointing out the concern for the future of the natural environment of the Albufera, it was at the beginning of the seventies when the denunciations of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente on television produced the first public controversies. Due to these and their echo among biologists, journalists and the incipient ecologist movement, in 1973 the City Council suspended the auctions of land lot. In 1974, the City Council reduced the planned building area by half. During the Transition, political forces and neighborhood associations insisted on the public use of the Albufera and the Dehesa. Of the 852 hectares planned, only 40 were urbanized for roads. With the arrival of democratic city councils in 1979, there was a shift towards a more protectionist and conservationist policy.

Dehesa del Saler
The Dehesa del Saler, located in the wide stretch between the mouths of the Turia and Júcar rivers, is part of the primitive cuspate foreland that caused the closure of the Albufera of Valencia. It is currently one of the most interesting coastal phenomena of the Iberian Peninsula, both for its extension and for being one of the few marshy depositional environment still functional. A decisive factor in the evolution of the coast would be the coastal drift, which follows a predominantly north–south direction with sufficient intensity to drag the sediments brought by the rivers. Aeolian action also contributes to the formation of dunes and to increase the thickness and width of the shoal that separates the sea from the lake. The restinga has been formed in two stages: in the first period the part of the marsh and the dune field closest to the Albufera were formed; while the maritime dune field and the beaches were formed later (since the Bronze Age). Originally, the Albufera communicated with the sea through one or more wide mouths (gullies in Valencian) that sometimes drained the continental waters of the lake, and other times gave way to the brackish waters of the sea. Currently, the Albufera is connected to the sea through three channels: the Puchol gully, the Perellonet gully and the Perelló gully.

Intradune depressions (malladas)
Between the two sets of dunes and occasionally within them, there are depressed areas characterized by their poorly permeable soils and the presence of the water table close to the surface. The malladas and salt marshes have suffered processes of anthropic degradation with silting, draining and drainage that have significantly affected them. Despite this, there are still some malladas in good condition and with a characteristic fauna and flora, including the Spanish toothcarp or the Valencian samaruc.

Marshlands
The marshlands are the lands that were formerly part of the lake and are now dedicated to rice cultivation. Its nearly 14,000 hectares are the largest area in the park, representing the flat floodable areas and forming an agricultural landscape with great historical significance in the Valencian context. Although it is an anthropized environment and subject to a regime of intensive exploitation, rice fields are an essential habitat for the functioning of the Albufera's ecological system and a traditional economic activity of the area's population. The rice field confers a clear seasonality to the whole system, with alternating flooding/drying of the fields and plant growth, which considerably varies the extension and characteristics of the flooded area, configured in an ecological sense as a temporary lagoon that floods in autumn and dries out in spring, and as a cultivation area in summer.

Springs (ullals)
The ullals are the springs found along the marshes of the Albufera. In these springs we find native fauna such as the Spanish toothcarp and the Valencian samaruc, as well as aquatic, marsh and riverside vegetation. Thus, the most important values of the ullals are the presence of invertebrates endemic to the park, a freshwater aquatic vegetation of the best preserved in the peninsula, being the habitat of several endangered fish, and being the main source of clean water that drains into the lake. Throughout the marsh there are about 50 springs, which may be in various states of conservation. Some, such as the Ullal Gros (large spring), the Ullal de Baldoví, the Laguna del Samaruc or the Ullals de Senillera, are in very good condition, and have populations of endangered plant and animal species, while the springs found in the municipalities of the Horta Sud are very degraded.

Lake
The lake extends about 10 kilometers from the city of Valencia to the southeast. It is the largest in the country, is separated from the sea by a dune cordon settled by the roots of a number of pines, adapted to this situation, and a large abundance of low scrub. Formerly the crystal clear waters allowed to see the bottom, and its waters were consumed without problems by fishermen, especially in the ullals. Still today we can enjoy the boats propelled by lateen sails, and by the so-called "perchas" (elongated pole with which the boatman propelled the boat resting on the floor of the lake) or oars, today also with engine, these boats are among the oldest in their way of sailing, as the VELA LATINA is one of the oldest known forms of navigation. During the season of better weather, the different associations of Vela Latina, such as Catarroja, El Palmar, Silla or Sollana, offer sailing exhibitions on Saturdays. Currently the lake has been reduced to about a third of what it was in the 19th century, when it reached Valencia, known as Cruz de la Conquista, and extended to Sueca, to a place called the Montanyeta dels Sants. Already at the beginning of the 20th century its surface had been reduced to 7 by 6 kilometers from the 17 by 6 of 100 years before. Pérez Escrich stated that in 1930 it was 9 leagues in circumference.

This allowed it to be an efficient means of communication between the different towns and the capital, with regular transport.In 1909, Emilio Sarzo, in his book of aquatic hunting, the Albufera and the metal fabrication, tells that the depth was very uneven, being in some places the aquatic plants very close to the surface and in other places there were 3 or 4 fathoms deep. At present, the Albufera is in a period of silting up, due to the numerous contributions it receives from the ravines on its western side. Its average depth is less than one meter, although at some points it can reach 130 centimeters.

El Monte
El Monte, although it is scarcely represented, it is worth mentioning the reliefs of Cretaceous origin located in the municipality of Cullera (El Cabezol and Montaña de los Zorros) and in the municipality of Sueca (Montaña de los Santos). The main environmental value lies in its role as a scenic landmark. El Monte represents an islet of arboreal vegetation of singular beauty in the middle of the homogeneous plain of the marshland, standing out on the horizon from any corner of the park.

Vegetation
The plant species that exist in the Dehesa are included in the following communities: coastal dunes, salt marshes, maquis and Mediterranean forest, and marsh formations. In the case of the coastal dunes (closer to the sea), the presence of pioneer species typical of mobile dunes such as dune grass or sea bells and fixed dunes such as aladern or mastic stands out. Salts accumulate in the malladas, so the plants that live here are adapted to the high salt concentrations, hence the name salt marshes. They are usually succulent plants, such as cordgrass and saltwort. The Maquis and the Mediterranean forest is made up of tree and shrub species such as Baltic pine, French tamarisk, mastic, cade juniper and kermes oak, as well as myrtle, thyme, gorse, rosemary, Micromeria graeca and European fan palm. In the last place, always in contact with the Albufera lake and the different canals and acequias, marsh communities develop, among which reeds, bulrushes, sedges and beachgrass predominate, which sink their roots in the fresh water or wet mud.

Fauna
The lake has a great diversity of animals in its environment. Although some fish species stand out, such as the spanish toothcarp and the samaruc, for being two endangered fish species, the recent appearance of the slimy fish Blennius fluviatilis, and the eel, mullet and seabass for their economic importance. Although this park is undoubtedly known for its extraordinary wealth of bird life, the red-crested pochard with up to 10,000 specimens, the northern shoveler with up to 20,000 specimens, and the mallard duck stand out among the anatidae. Also noteworthy are the colonies of herons, being able to highlight the cattle egret, the squacco heron or the grey heron. Finally, it is worth mentioning the presence of species such as the common tern, the sandwich tern, the common stilt, the marbled duck or the gull.

Samaruc reserves
The samaruc is a fish native to the Iberian Mediterranean coast that is in danger of extinction due to the destruction of its habitat, so a series of reserves have been created in which this small fish is bred. The reserves, located in the area of Albufera Natural Park, are distributed throughout the marsh area of the park, regenerated springs. These reserves are also trying to recover other organisms, the white waterlily, the utricularia australis (a carnivorous plant), the Marsilea quadrifolia, the purple loosestrife, etc. Other animal species to be recovered are the Spanish toothcarp, the cobitis paludica (mossegadoret) and the shrimp gabacha. The main reserve of the samaruc is the artificial ullal that has been created in the municipality of Algemesí, in the Partida del Barranquet.

Hunting
In the shallow areas known as alterons is where the shooting posts are located, as hunting is one of the historical activities of the area. Some chroniclers point out that already in the Muslim period it was a royal hunting area, and later, after the conquest, it became the property of Jaime I and his successors. Such was the richness of the area between Grao de Valencia and Cullera, that according to the Valencian botanist Cavanilles and other chroniclers of different times, there were abundant deer, wild boars, mountain goats, francolins, partridges, hares, rabbits, otters and up to sixty varieties of waterfowl, as well as an enormous quantity of fish. As "A corner of Paradise" it was defined in the middle of the 13th century. Hunting outside the boundaries of the lake is relatively recent, having as a precedent the annual shoot that was held in the Laguna de San Lorenzo of Cullera since 1830; this shoot was held at the end of November, and shooting was prohibited from September 1 to allow the number of birds in the area to recover. Currently, hunting is practiced in the "vedados" regime in Sueca, Cullera and Silla, with eight shootings each season on Saturdays, between the end of November and mid-January. The Sollana fenced area deserves special mention, since its importance was greater than that of Silla; however, no more shoots are carried out there. Traditionally, at the end of the runs in the "vedados", the càbiles were held, in which hunting took place for eight or ten consecutive days and any member of the hunting societies in their respective preserve could participate. The hunting structure of the park, the hunting preserves, has a rice field area of 13 259 hectares, of which 4201 correspond to the "vedados".

Fishing
The Muslims were already exploiting the fish wealth of the Albufera. After the Reconquest, the various Aragonese and Spanish monarchs who owned the Albufera also obtained their benefits by keeping a fifth of everything that was fished in the lake. In 1857 the fishing activity began to be regulated in a more orderly way and in accordance with the times. The first treaties were signed with the different fishing guilds in the area to ensure that taxes were paid in cash and not in kind. Today, as a result of the excessive exploitation and pollution of the waters, and the inadequate regulation of the Pujol floodgates that prevent the natural exchange of species with the sea, fishing activity is maintained only by the striped bass. The other two species, eel and sea bass, have been progressively disappearing.

Agriculture
The agriculture of the Albufera is mainly rice. The Albufera has evolved together with this crop since times even before Jaime I (since rice was introduced by the Arabs). In the Albufera, the cultivation of rice has been prohibited and authorized several times since the 15th century, since the need for large areas with stagnant water was a dangerous source of infection for the population. The procedure used to raise the level of the land and put it under cultivation consisted of first making a mota or margin of land that protruded from the level of the lake, delimiting the plot from the rest of the lake. Afterwards, boats (albuferencs) were used to carry the mud until the land was sufficiently elevated on the plot to make it suitable for rice cultivation. The rice produced in the natural park is almost entirely of the type called "redondo" or "bomba", mainly the bahía variety. However, there was also another activity, which consisted of obtaining mud from the bottom of the lagoon, which was used for construction. The process was tedious and laborious, since a kind of hoe with a handle long enough to reach the bottom of the lagoon was used. This material was transported to the city through the canals that flowed inland from the lagoon.

Environmental problems
The Albufera, like all wetlands, are very sensitive areas, and are therefore seriously affected by various problems such as water pollution, the disturbance of the water regime –mainly in relation to the springs–, the silting up of the marshes, urbanization in the dune system, the industrial pressure around the park -mainly in the municipalities of Horta Sud and the city of Valencia-, the negative impacts generated by the various infrastructures, such as roads or the port of Valencia, as well as by the negative impacts of the different infrastructures, such as roads or the port of Valencia, the industrial pressure around the park –mainly in the municipalities of the Horta Sud and the city of Valencia–, the negative impacts generated by the different infrastructures, such as highways or the port of Valencia, as well as by the increase in tourist and recreational pressure. All this has caused the water in the Albufera to become 80% more turbid than it was years ago.