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On the
morning of October 2, I took a brisk walk from my hotel in Granada, Spain to
the Palace of Conferences and Expositions for the start of CICES 2012, the 6th
biannual conference of IECA’s Iberoamerican Chapter. This was my first visit to Spain and the
first conference I would attend that was totally in Spanish. A dozen years ago, the Spanish part would
have been less of a problem as I was coming off of five years of Spanish study
and an intensive one-month immersion course in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. However, in the intervening years, I had
barely used my Spanish and was really rusty.
At least the subject of the conference was a subject with which I was
quite familiar (erosion and sediment control) so I would hopefully be able to
figure out what was going on just by looking at the pictures. And, for the most part, my assumption was
correct and some of the Spanish that was buried in the back of my brain was
roused from its long sleep.
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| Conference participants hanging out in the lobby of “El Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones”. |
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| Vendor displays at the conference |
After
introductions, the first presentation was by Gustavo Salerno, an Argentine
engineer and member of the Board of Directors of IECA’s Region 1. He gave an excellent presentation, Hacia una solucion integral en el control de
la erosion y los sedimentos (Toward a comprehensive solution in controlling
erosion and sediments) which provided an overview of the global importance of
contemporary erosion and sedimentation and identifying the gravity of the problem.
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Left: Valentin Contreras (Spain), Chair of the conference organizing committee; Right: Gustavo Salerno (Argentina), one of the keynote speakers.
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Señor
Salerno noted that the significance of erosion depends largely on climate and
is particularly serious in places like India and South America because of heavy
rainfall, a preponderance of steep slopes, and intensive land use. Of course, we at IECA are focused on erosion
associated with highly visible, large construction projects such as highways,
pipelines, and power lines. However,
agriculture is responsible for 60% of erosion worldwide whereas urban development
accounts for 20% and mining 10%. Salerno
pointed out that erosion from agriculture could be greatly reduced by contour
plowing which, as I had seen in many of the countries I had just visited, is
still not used as widely as it could be.
Gustavo Salerno then focused on pipeline projects and presented examples of stream crossing design to reduce erosion. He spoke of the gasoducto verde (“green” gas pipeline) concept which is increasingly being adopted on South American construction projects. He described elements of the gasoducto verde including narrowing the pipeline right-of-way to the narrowest width possible in rainforests. The importance of project planning was also stressed.
The next
presentation was by a Spaniard, Rosa Arce Ruiz, Professor of Civil Engineering
at the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
It was titled “Soil in the development of transportation, industrial,
urban, and residential infrastructure”.
Professor Arce started off with a summary of the history of international
regulations and proclamations for the protection of soils. She stressed that “el suelo es un elemento vivo” (soil is a living entity), and
documented the stresses on Spanish soils because of deforestation and
urbanization. Deforestation is occurring
to provide more land for cultivation, grazing, and wood exploitation. I was interested to learn that Spain is the
most arid country in Europe (so salinization of soils is a large issue), and
the Spanish environmental impact assessment law mandates the protection of
soils.
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| Paolo Cornelini spoke about the use of natural engineering to revitalize riparian environments. |
We had a
presentation from an Italian professor, Paolo Cornelini, who is vice-president
of the Italian Association for Natural Engineering. His presentation was titled “The restoration
and conservation of soil in the vicinity of river networks.” Professor Cornelini reminded us that el rio es una ecosystema (the river is
an ecosystem). He described how the
functioning of this ecosystem can be disrupted by disturbances to a river’s
morphology, hydrologic regime, and vegetation.
Erosion (such as bank erosion and bed scouring) is a fundamental element
interfering with the natural morphology of a river.
In order to “re-naturalize” a river’s disrupted
ecosystem it is necessary to restore both its morphology and biodiversity. Professor Cornelini showed us examples of
river “re-naturalization” projects in Italy and South America. Professor Cornelini showed us examples of
river “re-naturalization” projects in Italy and South America. The emphasis was on use of more vegetation
and less technology such as “living” wattles and gabions containing seedlings
and placed strategically in riparian areas.
Along the river channel, they recreated the natural step-pool
sequence. He presented an example from northeastern
Italy in the Alps near the border with Slovenia. The concrete channel was torn out and
replaced with cobbles. To stabilize cut
banks, vegetated crib walls with vegetated block stone bases were used. Fifteen plant species were used and after a
few years, more than 200 species had colonized the restored riparian area.
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Graph from Rodolf Gil’s presentation showing how the percentage of organic matter in agricultural soils decreases over time when conventional plowing is used.
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The next presentation was by an Argentine agricultural engineer, Rodolfo Gil, from the Soil Institute at the National University of Buenos Aires. After giving an introduction to the components of agricultural soils, Professor Gil illustrated how the percentage of organic matter in soil progressively decreases with the number of years of cultivation. However, this decrease can be slowed by use of direct seeding in contrast to conventional cultivation with plowing. Direct seeding with crop rotation increases soil porosity and water capacity. Use of this method has expanded significantly in Argentina over the past 35 years. And, use of sustainable agriculture (adopting plants and cultivation methods to the local environment) has become increasingly popular in contrast to less sustainable monoculture (single crop) agriculture.
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Newly-elected& retiring officers of the IECA Iberoamerican Chapter. L to R: Ricardo Schmalbach (Ecuador & Colombia), Paul Gonzalez (USA), Paula Pereira (Brazil), Valentin Contreras (Spain), Beatriz Fernández (Spain), Nicky Araujo (Costa Rica& Panama), and Juan Carlos Hernández (Guatemala).
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Later that
day, the Iberoamerican Chapter of IECA held a meeting to elect new officers. Lead
conference organizer, Valentin Contreras of BonTerra Iberica (a Granada-based
company specializing in erosion and sediment control products), was elected
President taking over from Rafael “Nicky” Araujo of Costa Rica and Panama. For the first time, two women were elected
chapter officers: Beatriz Fernández of
Spain and Paula Pereira of Brazil. Juan
Carlos Hernandez of Guatemala was also elected, and he has taken on the
challenge of chairing the organizing committee for the next CICES Conference
which will be held in Antigua, Guatemala in 2014.
Coming next: Highlights of some of the papers presented at CICES.
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| View of the Alhambra from the site of our fiesta at the end of the first day of the conference. |
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| Fiesta participants were treated to a performance by a flamenco dancer. |
