Planning Landscape with Water Infiltration. Empirical Model to Assess Maximum Infiltration Areas in Mediterranean Landscapes

Abstract

Water infiltration is a natural process of landscape. The areas with high capacity to infiltrate are especially important in landscape planning, whose protection is crucial for the continuity of water flow, maximizing the recharge of aquifers, minimizing flooding risks and reduce soil erosion. The different interpretations of the criteria for the delimitation water infiltration areas, its imprecise legal nature and the progressive incentive for sustainable water and management policies, have created the need for an integrative and ecological based methodology that suppresses this gap at the landscape planning level. The aim of this research was to create a GIS model, based on ecological principles, that contributes to the delimitation of the maximum infiltration areas. The mapping of water-related systems guarantees the inclusion and protection of the hydrological cycle in the landscape planning. The application of the model in Almada Municipality, from Lisbon Metropolitan Area, allows the integration of the maximum infiltration areas in planning, municipal management and urban design. Almada is part of the recharge area of Tagus River aquifer. With the application of the proposed model, we concluded that 54 % of the municipality has maximum infiltration areas and 38 % of those are already impervious due to construction works. Finally, we concluded that this method should be applied in an early stage of planning, at several scales, leading to the definition of potential soil uses and priority intervention measures according with its ecological suitability.