Systems Analysis of Zaragoza Urban Water - SWITCH - Managing ...

Systems Analysis of Zaragoza UWS
Guillermo Penagos
3 Materials and Methods
3.1 Study site
Figure 1. Satellite map for Zaragoza and its location in Spain (Source: google maps,
http://maps.google.es/maps?oi=eu_map&q=Zaragoza&hl=en)
Zaragoza is the capital city of the autonomous region of Aragon in Spain, and is located
on the Ebro River Catchment, and its tributaries the Huerva and Gállego. The city is 199
metres above sea level and is near the centre of the region. The population of the city is
around 700.000, ranking fifth in Spain. Climatic conditions of Zaragoza are a transition
between Mediterranean and Continental climate with an average temperature of 15ºC.
The Ebro River Valley at Zaragoza is a semiarid region with an average annual
precipitation of 367 mm concentrated in 67 days, ranking as the driest inland region in
Europe. The Ebro River drains a triangular basin with an area of 85.820 Km², between
the Pyrenees and the Iberian Mountains, with the Cantabrian Mountains as northern
border. The Ebro is the largest river in Spain with a course 928 km long and total annual
discharge of 19,000 million m 3 . The main use of water resources along the Ebro River
Catchment is agricultural irrigation, followed by hydropower generation, urban supply
and Industrial activities. The river is characterized by a wide range of seasonal variation
of the river discharge. Therefore, since the 1930’s, 138 reservoirs have been
constructed in the river basin, with a total storage capacity of 6,837 Hm³ (CHE, 2007)
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