Las Llamas Park took centre stage in the BBC programme ‘Spanish Gardens‘, a documentary series featuring the renowned British horticulturist and presenter Monty Don, who travelled over 4,000 kilometres to explore parks and gardens across Spain.
‘Spanish Gardens’ will be available on BBC 2 for the next 12 months and can be viewed in Spain through the link BBC Two – Monty Don’s Spanish.
Specifically, Las Llamas was featured in the third episode of the series, focusing on the northern coast from Santiago de Compostela to Bilbao, passing through the Cantabrian capital. Felipe González, CEO of SEOBirdLife in Cantabria and one of the experts involved in Las Llamas project, accompanied the presenter during his visit. It was highlighted that the park that is visited by up to 150 birds, some of them never seen before in Spain. Also, the park acts as a flood zone, retaining water that would otherwise spread and flood other areas of the city. This is of increasing concern as the region is experiencing increasingly extreme weather conditions.
Considering this scenario, D4RUNOFF project selected Las Llamas park as the case study in Santander. The basin is a hybrid urban drainage system, including a pumping station and a treatment plant but also a Nature-Based Solutions as a constructed wetland and permeable pavements. Some of the main challenges of D4RUNOFF partners are to analyse the potential collapse of drainage systems due to flooding and overflows and understand the capacity of this constructed wetland to naturally mitigate these problems and remove Contaminants of Emerging Concern (CECs) from rainwater. This will help to give even more value and conserve the amazing natural ecosystems in Las Llamas Park, ensuring a proper urban development in Santander City.
For further information, you can download the Santander factsheet.
Authors: Evdokia Bairampa (3OC), Sara García Argüelles (University of Cantabria)
