Green light has been recently given to the fluvial restoration project at the Arikutza dam in the Basque country (Spain), the biggest dam in Europe to be acted upon to restore river connectivity.
The Arikutza dam stands 43m tall, 180m wide and 35m thick on a small tributary (regata de Enobieta) in the Urumea river basin. The dam, built in the 1950’s, has never been working at full storage capacity due to geological instability and has been empty since 2019.
The restoration project aims at ‘making a 7m wide hole’ at the bottom of the structure to enable the free flow of water, sediments and organisms. This partial dam removal project has been chosen minimise impacts on the surrounding area, a Natura 2000 site and a Special Conservation Zone (ZEC in Spanish).
The proposed solution also considers the upper dam structure as an habitat for important bat species, supporting the removal of just the bottom part of the dam for restoring river connectivity. Furthermore, acting on a small portion of such colossal structure will require less rubble relocation during removal.
The river restoration project will be funded by the San Sebastian city council and the EU Life project Kantauribai.
FreeFlowLab 