Wrapping the marsh. Landscape itinerary around the North Estuary of the Odiel river by Estudio Acta

Project description by Estudio Acta

It is a large green infrastructure, of a supra-municipal nature and accessible to all people, of about 30 km. long, which connects the towns of three municipalities (Huelva, Aljaraque and Gibraleón, which have about 180.000 people between them) and brings them closer to the great environmental, landscape, botanical, zoological, cultural, archaeological, heritage and tourist wealth it encompasses the vast protected natural area of the Odiel Marshes that surrounds them (7,185 Ha) The project involves a double aspect:

- The requalification of the degraded urban-rural borders, through their environmental regeneration and the improvement of their landscape image. The project involves the planting of almost 25.000 new tree and shrub species, at the rate of almost one for each linear meter of itinerary.
- The non-motorized accessibility between the 3 aforementioned populated areas, which intend to connect by means of a multimodal route that runs along the edge of the marshes in contact with the Natural Park of the North Odiel Estuary - of high ecological value -, declared a Biosphere Reserve.

The philosophy of the project arises from the consideration that the citizens of the 21st century no longer live in confined cities, towns or places -even if they reside in them-, with hardly any relationship with the residents of other nearby municipalities. The concept of Territory, as a space where life takes place -work, residence, leisure, social relationship - increasingly calls for the establishment of ties between the different parts that make up our physical reality, beyond the possible creation of entities, purely administrative, such as metropolitan areas.

Therefore, the possibility of creating routes, spaces and activities that unite the territories and the parts that compose them, represents a golden opportunity to adapt to the changing times in which we have to live and, ultimately, to be able to link landscape natural and life, something that citizens have been demanding for a long time and that defines the general objective of this proposal. This is broken down into five particular goals:
 

1. Establish operational communication and transit networks in the territory.
2. Protect the edge of the North Odiel Marsh in its contacts with the inhabited nucleus of Huelva, Aljaraque and Gibraleón, connected as an indivisible part with the South Estuary, as a natural lung.
3. Convert this place into a space for learning, empowerment and leisure for the local population, where this is possible and compatible with its protection.
4. Reactivate the production options of the marsh territory, in sustainable and quality terms.
5. Promote this territory as a symbol of the place's identity, also stimulating its tourist offer.

It is, undoubtedly, a long-term process, necessarily dynamic, with the ability to adapt to time and circumstances. Every landscape project is a long-haul path, a patient process, to which we try to answer from the aforementioned perspective of a versatile and adaptable action plan. From this dynamic perspective of the project, the collection of maked proposals is clearly divided into three categories: Loop (base path), Grafts (possible nodes) and Seeds (future initiatives). The itinerary is divided into 14 lots, in which we can find the following specific actions:
 

Pergola-stay at Corrales mining area
Rest Area and Fraile’s pier
Bridge-stay over the Prado’s river
Connection with Peguerillas tidal mill
Connection with the old gunpowder warehouse and the Caño del Burro’s pier
Lagoons and bird lookout in old Cardeñases saltworks
Promenade, viewpoints and stays on the Huelva seafront

The choice of route and the precise situation of each of the proposals in the territory, how these have been dimensioned and their activities have been chosen, responds to a conscious and necessary process of recognition and appropriation of the place, of getting the feet wet in the marsh:
 

Track. We have meticulously walked the territory, tracking its history and analyzing its parameters, to expose its values and conflicts, mark its opportunities and threats and find its hallmarks. Data all of them necessary to trace a route.
Connect. Based on the prospecting, an option to draw the loop has been determined and it has been sized and qualified to be able to differentiate effective circulation ranges: communication, sports and leisure.
Wrap. The proposed perimeter route in the loop serves to encapsulate the northern marsh, clearly trace its limits with urban areas and definitely protect the Island of Sustainability that this entails in Andalusian territory.
Qualify. The loop thickens to hold living and activity spaces in those points where the place itself demands it, either due to the presence of urban areas, either due to the detection of ecological or heritage values, or due to the need to environmentally regenerate the landscape.
Adventure. From the perimeter loop, the proposal penetrates into the center of the marsh where it is possible and necessary, searching to stimulate the relationship of inhabitants and visitors with the interior landscape of the Park.

In summary, starting from an infrastructure and communications project, we intend to give 'hare for cat' and, with small interventions -proposals for territorial acupuncture- give an added value to the intervention to turn it into a future equipped park. It is definitely about taking advantage of a linear operation of 30 km. to think on the long-term development of the entire territory it involves.