Green Belt for Madrid
El Bosque Metropolitano (the Metropolitan Forest)
Not just a forest around the city, but a green area, a place for ecological and social recovery, a space to give ample breathing space to the life and future of a great capital.
As in every part of Europe, Madrid is also developing projects that aim to re-establish the ecological balance of the city, stopping the advance of concrete and creating green areas, regenerating urban spaces in a sustainable, economic, social and environmental sense. The Spanish capital is dealing with the devastating effects of the massive construction that has generated a large real estate bubble and is therefore aiming for a large action plan with an evocative name, Madrid 360° and, just like a ring that surrounds and protects it, a large green belt is being planned around the city, the so-called “El Bosque Metropolitano”, because, despite the provision of urban greenery per capita being about 23 square meters, the greenery is concentrated in the north-west area with El Retiro and Casa de Campo.
With 600 hectares, a 75-kilometer-long ring and 75 million euros, this large project is expected to absorb much of the noise and carbon dioxide produced by the frenetic city traffic, with a completion time of twelve years. Over four million euros have already been allocated for the start of the project, while the overall cost is expected to reach seventy-five million.
The project will improve the environmental conditions of the city, respecting the objectives of Sustainable Development and Agenda 2030, incorporating new structures that will favor the development of healthy habits, while the ring of urban greenery will have to constitute a barrier against desertification, favoring territorial rebalancing.
Among the key points of the project are the reuse of native trees and shrubs and the spread of greenery without interruptions. There are no plans to create breaks in the greenery that could be generated by infrastructures such as bridges and viaducts, because these must be green paths, with trees and shrubs typical of the natural scrub of the territory such as: holm oaks, strawberry trees, pines, poplars, ash trees, elms, willows, wild olive trees, oleanders, brooms, thyme, hawthorn, etc. The “ecoducts”, green bridges, will allow the passage of wild fauna. After the first one hundred thousand trees, in the end, there will be four hundred and fifty thousand plants that will act as a green lung and this will help prevent floods, mitigate the torrid summer climate and the cold winter climate.
The project involves the construction of five lots, starting from the Manzanares axis. This will be followed by Valdebebas and the fairgrounds, Vallecas and the Herradura hill, then Mercamadrid and Butarque, and ending with Getafe, Leganés and Alcorcón. Alternating parks, pedestrian and cycle paths, green areas equipped for sports activities and dog areas, the greenery will encourage sociality, with spaces for gathering and recreation. According to the intentions of the Madrid administration, it will be the largest green infrastructure built in Europe in the next decade. The project starts from the Office of the Deputy Mayor, involving many local actors and various sectors of the city administration, such as the Environment, Mobility and Economy.
The urban forest aims to strengthen the union between different areas where, especially along the rivers, groves, wetlands and lagoons have formed, which are home to many typical wildlife species, such as the red kite, the Iberian imperial golden eagle, the white-headed malvasia and the imperial heron.
The Metropolitan Forest, a green ring around the city, will strengthen the union between various peripheral parts of the city, will protect them from building speculation, will allow for the recovery of landfills and will aim to create an ecological corridor for wildlife. The degraded and returned to nature parts will have plants that, in addition to camouflaging themselves in the environment, will require little care for their maintenance. This project includes urban gardens and social activities, a circular economy center and a school of trades. In short, it will not only be a forest around the city, but something more complex: a green area, a place for ecological and social recovery, a space to give ample space to the life and future of a great capital.
