Circularity of Water in theDevelopment of

ALQUEVABárbara Cristina Tita

Department of Environment and Spatial Planning of EDIA

This is Alqueva

ALQUEVACircularity of water in

the MultipurposeProject

This is Alqueva

Alqueva is opening new pathways for water distribuition. These pathways reach out thepublic to the public, by reinforcing five dams which supply water to around 200,000inhabitants, for agriculture, with an equipped irrigation area of around 120,000 hectares,for industry, for generating clean energy and for tourism.

This is Alqueva

Alqueva Multipurpose Project (EFMA) has direct influence in the municipalities covered by the Alqueva Reservoir and those who benefit from the irrigation perimeters or are served by the public supply.

It is from there that other dams interconnect to guarantee a water supply even in periods of extreme drought to an area of around 10,000 km2, in a total of 20 municipalities in the districts of Beja, Évora, Portalegre and Setúbal.

The Alqueva reservoir’s total storage capacity is 4.150 billion m3, 3.150 billion m3 of which is its usable volume under normal operation.

This is AlquevaAlentejo region is about 1/3 of the area of Portugal mainland . It is a sparsely populated region, with only 5% of the population and high levels of human desertification and ageing. The GDP per capita in the region is below the national average. This region experiences rare and brief periods of rainfall.

The shortage of rainfall has been one of the main limitations on the region’s development and has stood in the way of the modernisation of agriculture and sustainability of public water supply.

Alqueva’s Project is a structural instrument which gives rise to a diversified, sustained series of activities in a process of sustained integration.

Irrigatedareas

Waternetwork

WATER MASSES

AGRO-NATURAL SYSTEMS

Climatechange

ALQUEVA

Regional watercycle

New Agriculture

Waterwarranty

Integrated Management

Regenerationof Ecosystems

Surface water resourcesSoil

Groundwater resources Biodiversity

ENVIRONMENTAL

MONITORINGA TOOL FOR THE MANAGEMENT AND

OPERATION OF ALQUEVA PROJECT

Biodiversity safeguards basic resources and environmental services, promotes agricultural and forest productivity, purifies the air and helps to regulate the climate.

Biological variables are excellent indicators of the status of the environment and the information gathered during their monitoring should be used in management policies to facilitate decision-making and response to impacts of system changes and define mitigation actions.

EDIA is aware of its importance and the need of having more knowledge to help in its management and has been working to monitor fauna, flora and vegetation in different implementation phases of the Alqueva Multipurpose Project.

ENVIRONMENTAL

MONITORINGA TOOL FOR THE MANAGEMENT AND

OPERATION OF ALQUEVA PROJECT

Linaria ricardoi

Env

iron

men

tal i

mpa

cts

•Biodiversity loss;

•Hybridization withautochthonous species;

•Damage of the structure, function and composition of ecosystems.

Promotion ofsustainable and

profitableirrigation

agriculture

Increase ofactivity of

agriculture andagroindustry

DesertificationClimate change

Perceived and recognisedadded value of sustainability

This project comprises the implementation of a solution that integrates the principles of Circular Economy (CE) in the value chain of plastics, with the recovery of waste plastics (agricultural plastic, disposable plastics and CDR) through the production of activated carbon.

Activated carbon is a material with an extraordinary capacity, in this particular case, to selectively capture liquids or impurities within, having a high power of liquid clarification and purification.

The production of these adsorbent materials will be carried out at different temperatures by using of different activating agents, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, air, among others. The obtained materials will be characterized by several techniques to obtain their textural characterization; namely its porous structure; and chemical characterization, in particular the functional groups present on the surface.

After characterization, selected samples will be tested for the removal of characteristic or similar compounds from those normally occurring in industrial liquid effluents, particularly in the agricultural domain.

Activated carbon has several applications, such as the filtration of pollution in liquid and gaseous forms , being used in agroindustrialand urban areas in medium-sized units of local and regional production becoming a high value environmental product.

PlaCarvões | PlaCarbons

https://www.edia.pt/en/ | https://www.youtube.com/user/AlquevaEDIA | https://www.facebook.com/edia.alqueva | btita@edia.pt | ailheu@edia.pt

Bárbara Cristina Tita

Department of Environment and Spatial Planning

C I R C U L A R E C O N O M Y