Universitat Politècnica de València

Short description

Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) is a public, dynamic, and innovative institution dedicated to researching and teaching, with strong bonds with its social environment and a strong presence abroad. One of the pillars of the social recognition of UPVLC is its research capacity. With over 52 million euro/year in R&D activities, its departments (41), research centres and institutes (40) are participating in many research activities jointly with national and international bodies and companies, with more than 4.000 people directly involved in research. The Institute of Water and Environmental Engineering (IIAMA) of UPV is formed by around 100 people, including research and administrative staff, with more than 20 full and associate professors and several post-doc researchers, offering an ample scientific- technical baggage consolidated in the last 20 years in subjects related to Water and the Environment.

The UPV team of AGREEMAR belongs to the Water Resources Engineering Research (WRER) group of the IIAMA-UPV. The WRER has more than 30 years of R+D+I experience in topics related to Sustainable and Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management, with special focus on the planning and management of watersheds integrating quantitative, qualitative, economic, environmental, and social aspects, as well as on the design, construction, exploitation, and safety of hydraulic infrastructures. The research lines of the UPV team tackle diverse approaches and objectives within the common framework of the engineering of water resources systems. The WRER group is a reference in research and development of methods and tools for the analysis of the management of water resources systems, and is the developer of the software AQUATOOL, which has been used as a tool to aid decision making in the development of plans at both national and international levels. Different methodologies for the modelling and analysis of water resources systems under a multidisciplinary and integral approach have been implemented by the UPV team, covering aspects related to water resource assessment through precipitation-runoff modelling (EVALHID and PATRICAL modules), simulation and optimization of watershed management (SIMGES and OPTIGES), groundwater modelling (AQUIVAL), water quality modelling (GESCAL) and habitat estimation (CAUDECO). Most of these modules are integrated in the same platform (AQUATOOL), which serves as Decision Support System for the planning and management of water resources systems.

All these programs are used by companies, water agencies and other universities for the development of studies such as hydrological plans, infrastructure design, estimation of the environmental state of the watershed, drought plans, etc. In fact, AQUATOOL has been a reference tool in Spain for the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive. This directive establishes the guidelines for the development of hydrological plans at the European level. AQUATOOL is also being used by several scientific institutions for research studies in Italy, China, México, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Colombia, and Morocco as well as for real-world planning applications in a number of foreign countries, such as Algeria, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, Bosnia, Uruguay, El Salvador and Cyprus.

The research lines of the UPV team are developed through research projects obtained in national and international competitive calls as well as contracts with public entities and companies. Due to the experience in the implementation of the methodologies and programs as well as to the practical utility of the results, the transfer of technology to the administrations and consulting companies is a key objective of the UPV team. The group also performs advisory tasks to different users of the programs and models, mainly institutions, administrations and companies related to the world of water.

AGREEMAR team

Relevant publications (selection):

• Suárez-Almiñana, S., Solera, A., Madrigal, J., Andreu, J., & Paredes-Arquiola, J. (2020). Risk assessment in water resources planning under climate change at the Júcar River basin. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24(11), 5297-5315.
• Madrigal, J., Solera, A., Suárez-Almiñana, S., Paredes-Arquiola, J., Andreu, J., & Sánchez- Quispe, S. T. (2018). Skill assessment of a seasonal forecast model to predict drought events for water resource systems. Journal of Hydrology, 564, 574-587.
• Haro-Monteagudo, D., Solera, A., & Andreu, J. (2017). Drought early warning based on optimal risk forecasts in regulated river systems: Application to the Jucar River Basin (Spain). Journal of Hydrology, 544, 36-45.
• Momblanch, A., Paredes-Arquiola, J., & Andreu, J. (2017). Improved modelling of the freshwater provisioning ecosystem service in water scarce river basins. Environmental Modelling & Software, 94, 87-99.
• Suárez-Almiñana, S., Pedro-Monzonís, M., Paredes-Arquiola, J., Andreu, J., & Solera, A. (2017). Linking Pan-European data to the local scale for decision making for global change and water scarcity within water resources planning and management. Science of the Total Environment, 603, 126-139.