Over history, population growth and industrial development had polluted Pamplona’s riverbeds. The city ignored its rivers. With the creation of the 1984 General Plan, Pamplona considered recovering this natural habitat as a leisure-social interaction area and using it as a means by which to articulate the city.
The Integral Plan for the River Arga (1998-2001) and the Integral Plan for the River Arga and the Rivers Sadar and Elorz (2003-2009) saw the integration of these river environments into the city via the creation of a linear Park more than seventeen kilometres long, capable of harnessing a rich assortment of urban and natural resources into a single entity.
These plans catered for the recuperation of the riverbeds and riverbanks by clearing underbrush and sanitation work, and the creation of a long, uninterrupted, natural path for walkers and cyclists peppered with new parks, footbridges, quays and restored mills.
In all, work has been performed on more than 28,000 metres of riverbank and a surface area of almost 800,000 m2. More than sixteen kilometres of pathways have been created and more than 17,000 trees have been planted.
