The inner part of the autonomous community of Valencia is a very mountainous territory. It has a warm and semi-arid climate, which means that the availability of water in summer, both in terms of quality and quantity, is insufficient to deal with forest fire emergencies. From 2012 to 2021, there have been 3 446 fires in the Valencian Community. Less than 5% of them have progressed to Large Forest Fires (<500 ha), but these have affected more than 90% of the total forest area. The trend is towards a gradual decrease in the number of fires, with a slight increase in naturally occurring wildfires (e.g. caused by lightning).

The Valencian Community authorities have prepared a regional plan for the prevention of forest fires. The plan establishes and quantifies the actions required to reduce the number of forest fires and the necessary infrastructures to facilitate surveillance, management, rapid access to resources and safety in extinguishing operations.

In this context, this project, which is co-financed by the Rural Development Programme of the Valencian Community 2014-2020, foresees the construction of five water tanks for the prevention and extinction of forest fires. The water reservoirs will be constructed in the forest areas managed by the regional administration, located in Cabanes, Cinctorres, Morella, Rossell and Xert.

The aims of this infrastructure project were:     

The five water reservoirs are located in the province of Castellón. The first condition for building this type of infrastructure is the availability of land to carry out the work. In the case of the Valencian Community, 30% of land is public and belongs to, or is managed directly, by the regional administration, while the rest is private land. The reservoirs are built following a uniform standard for the whole of the Valencian Community, which sets general rules for the construction of such water basins. Minimum common requirements (in terms of volume, location, signalling, prevention of drowning of wildlife, valves and complementary accessories, etc.) guarantee the quality of the service they provide and the safety of operations, especially for aerial means. The capacity of the water reservoirs ranges between 350 000 and 500 000 litres of water.

At first, the vegetation was cleared and grubbed. Next, the access points to the reservoir and catchment works were concreted. The land was prepared, the foundations and the reservoirs were built. Then, the pipes, valves and various manholes and water intakes were assembled. Once completed, the perimeter was fenced to prevent access by unauthorised people, a ramp was built for the fauna to prevent drowning and handholds were installed. In four of the reservoirs, water troughs and ponds were built to make surplus water available for livestock and wildlife. Once everything was built, signposts were put in place to improve the visibility of critical elements, thus improving the safety conditions for loading operations by rotary-wing aircraft (helicopters).

The improvement of the roads between the forest and the reservoirs is of significant importance, not only for the construction of the reservoirs themselves, but also to facilitate their maintenance and the loading and unloading of fire-fighting vehicles during the extinguishing of a fire.