Stakeholder engagement in the recovery project of Monelos urban river Monelos (Spain)

Abstract

[Abstract:] For many years of urban development in the city of A Coruña, the courses of the Monelos River were primarily used as waste water dump sites, from residential and industrial discharges. Consequently, the streams became an important source of pollution and odours, damaging the image of the city and the well-being of the citizens. These were additional issues to the risk of flooding during the rainy season. Therefore, in the 1960s,the solution was to channel, divert and pipe the river through the sewer system as the city grew. Monelos river revival (MonRiveR) is a project that, since 2017, aims at recovering the river by means of different alternatives, daylighting, rehabilitation or restoration, bearing in mind that options in urbanized areas are highly constrained, mainly due to urban infrastructure and land availability (Bernhardt & Palmer, 2007). And also a cultural restoration of the river will be carried out.