Valencia

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November 8, 2024

Carol and I lived in Valencia for three years before we moved to Falset, and we were both saddened by the recent tragic flood there. By now the news media has covered the event in depth, but I thought that knowing a bit of the history behind the flood might provide some insight into the disaster and the Spanish culture. I’ll start with the basics.

The city

Valencia is a city of about 800,000 people on the Mediterian coast of Spain about 500 km (300 mi) east of Madrid and southwest of Barcelona. It lies on a large coastal plain east of the Sierra de Segária mountain range.

As you can see from the topographic map below, the city is not much above sea level. The large blue area south of the city is the Albufera Natural Park that has a freshwater lake separated from the Med. by a narrow sand strip.

The map below shows the topography of the Valencia region, and the colors indicate the number of meters each area is above sea level.

The climate

Valencia climate is much like that of Southern California. It has dry summers, and whatever rain it gets comes in the fall and winter. So, the rivers run dry most of the time and tend to fill up with vegetation during long droughts. Also, like Southern California, there are fairly frequent droughts. During these long drought years vegetation sprouts up in the river beds and, when the rains come, the vegetation holds back the water until it fails; then the water gushes on with a much greater volume and force.

The history

Given the topographic and climate conditions, it isn’t surprising that Valencia has had a long history of floods. The last major one occurred in 1957. At this time the Turia river flowed through the central part of the city. You can see it on the map below. It starts at the top left corner of the map, runs to the Parc de la Canaleta, dips down a bit and passes through the end of the word Mislata. It then goes up to the purple Torres dels Serrans, and then down to where the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciencies is now. It then emptied into the Med where at the port of Valencia.

In the 1957 flood, the old part of the city south of the purple tower symbol of the Torres dels Serrans did not suffer much damage, but the the north of the river and the harbor area were severely damaged.

After the flood of 1957 the city decided to reroute the Turia outside of what then were the city boundaries. The current course is shown on the map as the double yellow lines beginning at Parc de la Canaleta and running to Playa de Pinedo.

As an aside, after the Turia was rerouted, the city government was left with the issue of what to do with the old river bed. Some of the dimmer bulbs in city government wanted to turn it into a multi-lane freeway from the highway to the port of Valencia, and argued that this would turn Valencia into a major port city. The people of Valencia strongly rejected this plan. Surprisingly, the city government listened. The area between Parc de la Canaleta to the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciences is now an 8k (5mi) park. More on this in another edition.

What happened in this recent flood?

As you can see from the image below, the river levees were overtopped around Parc de la Canleta and the barrios south of the river were badly flooded. I’m sure more details of the damage will be available in the news media.