villages

Nine of the ten hottest villages in Europe this summer are in the same country: Spain

by

The Second heat wave of the year It does not seem willing to give ground yet. Not even before the storms announced for these days they will improve the situation, which will last at least until Tuesday 12 according to the last special notice of the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet). Coping the top positions. Last Tuesday the heat in the Iberian Peninsula caused a picturesque image: nine of the 10 largest records of maximum temperatures collected by a weather in European countries were captured in Spain. So He reviewed through his social networks the Meteorology fan magazinethat cited data of the platform Ogimet. Temperatures in this rankingThey ranged from 41.1 celsius registered in Coria, Cáceres; Until 42.3º of the Écija station, Seville. All of them above the Batman Turkish weather station, which with 41º remained in the tenth place of this particular classification. The maximum temperatures of the last hours have been reduced, and now it is Türkiye that is in the eye of the hurricane. The situation It has been invested And now Spain has a weather station in this peculiar “Top 10”. This is the Granada airport station, which registers 40.6º. The heat wave continues. More moderate temperatures than those registered a few days ago but still high. That is why Aemet Maintain yellow and orange notices (for important risk) In good part of the country, at least until Saturday (the notices begin to announce three days). Today the notices for important risk will affect not only the entire community of Madrid, also to areas of Andalusia, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, and even Galicia. Tomorrow the notices for important risk will also extend to Aragon and Navarra. A stagnant situation. According to Explain Aemetthe situation is propitiated by an “quite stationary” atmospheric situation, which opened its way to a warm and dry air from Africa. An air mass that extends throughout the Peninsula and that, thanks to the high insolation, has allowed temperatures to be triggered during these days. To the point that, despite yesterday’s thermal descent, the situation could be aggravated again today and during the weekend. The forecasts z of temperatures above 40º in the depressions of the Northeast and in the valleys of Miño, El Tajo, El Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Until Tuesday? The question that many will be asking is how long this will last. Aemet’s special notice It will remain active at least until Tuesday, but that does not mean that the heat wave will end there. The forecasts talk about temperatures that will continue on Monday and Tuesday, but the agency indicates that the uncertainty starting Wednesday is too high, although the models indicate a possible drop in temperatures. That is why the only answer that can be given is that we still do not know how long this heat wave will last. In Xataka | The Catalan and Segura basins toured different paths during the drought. Now they share something: the passage of the trough Image | ECMWF

In León there are small villages that are finding a peculiar phenomenon: thousands of “ghost tourists”

by

In the world there is good and bad touristsrespectful tourists and disrespectfulclean and others capable of converting places such as Everest either The Fuji In authentic stercolera, but much less common is what some peoples of the province of León are living. His municipalities are finding a kind of “Ghost Tourism”a drip of thousands and thousands of travelers that nobody has seen or heard or housed, but that in theory they have visited the town. Or at least he assures it A study of the INE. Multiplying the census by 24. Carbajal sources It is a town of León located about 50 minutes by car from the provincial capital and surrounded by hectares and hectares of cultivation. It doesn’t usually sneak into the news, but Monday León News He dedicated him A broad article which explains a peculiarity of the people: in summer there are few municipalities in which the population shoots more for tourism. According to A study INE experimental that measures the flow of tourists from the position of mobile phones, between July and August 2024 the town received 1,826 tourists. Many do not seem like many, but it is that INE himself acknowledges that in the Leonese town there are barely registered 76 people. That is, when the heat arrives, the summers multiply by 24 the municipal census. Next to nothing. “It’s a mockery”. Such data would be compressible if Carbajal sources had a natural park, an old fortress, parties known throughout the community or some other claim that explains that avalanche of visitors, but the City Council itself itself Recognize that this figure of 1,826 tourists (464 in July and 1,180 in August) is difficult to explain … and even more difficult to assume. “It is a burial,” nods The mayor of the town, Carlos de León Saluds, in León News. Similar opinion, Ana María Ortega, former mayor and councilor, Explain That one thing is that the influx of visitors increases in July and August for the people who returns to the village or visit to their relatives and a very different one that the data is triggered in an exorbitant way. “In summer you can triple the population, but multiply by 24 the number of inhabitants with veraners and tourists cannot be.” So … what happens? To understand that mysterious “Ghost Tourism” the first thing is to go to the prine sources. The data of the 1,826 tourists leaves a new “Experimental Statistics” of the INE that resorts to the signals of the mobiles to calculate different metrics related to tourism: the place of origin of foreigners arriving in Spain, the destinations that visit the Spaniards when they leave the country and the movement between communities, provinces and municipalities. The study has been prepared for a few years and always talks about the same: “Tourists.” If we consult the “internal tourism” data and more specifically the flows of “Interprovincial tourists” Residents in Spain, classifying the results by municipalities, the surprise arrives: in July of last year Fuentes de Carbajal received 646 and in August 1,180. In total 1,826. The question is therefore … how are those figures calculated that collide the mayor and the former mayor of the people? Mobile and antennas matter? The response is given by INE in The technical file From the survey: the data is related to the position of mobile phones and are obtained thanks to the collaboration of the country’s large operators. The approach is interesting and promising, but implies certain challenges. “The location of mobile phones is estimated from mobile phone antennas”, collects the institute itself: “This implies that the location of a mobile is not established with total precision, and the error depends on the concentration of antennas.” In summary, the more mobile antennas, the greater precision. Unraveling the mystery. The INE’s ability to analyze the data is also limited. The records on mobile location are anonymous and processed each operator, so the institute receives only aggregate data and in tables, without option to examine loose values. In rural areas it is also found that the low density of the network conditions the type of ‘cells’ with which it operates. By statistical secret, the institute also hides certain data. With that information about the Ortega table Slide that the balance of carbajal sources (which is so adjusted to what is perceived in the people itself) may be due to technical issues, such as coverage or that for some reason the data of other municipalities are added to those of the Leonesa Villa, thus blurring the real photo. Near Fuentes de Carbajal there are other villas with a balance of zero visitors. In Xataka we have already addressed the INE to ask him about that apparent mismatch. Is it the only case? No. León News Informs other equally striking, although none reaches the level of carbajal sources. In San Millán de los Caballeros, for example, the INE registered 1,648 tourists in July and in August 1,602, which adds 3,250. Again they may not seem like many, but it is that the town has 191 inhabitants registered. The same occurs in Izagre, of 137 residents and who according to the statistical institute receives almost 2,000 Veranians. “We don’t have great parties, just four performances during the summer,” remember the mayor of San Millán. “There are two campsites close to the people, but they are in the municipal terms of Valencia de D Juan and Villamañán.” Nor does the Izagre councilor achieve to understand everything that happens: “On central summer days, with the holidays, between 150 and 200 people can be reached in each of the villages, but reaching the 1,987 veraneantes in those two months cannot be.” Images | Zed Mendez (UNSPLASH)Google Maps and Wikipedia Via | León News In Xataka | It is increasingly easy to see from the road a crop that had never been dominant in Spain: the pistachio

After the civil war, Franco wanted to colonize empty Spain. So 300 new villages were invented

by

Throughout Spain there are more than 8,100 municipalitieslarge and small villages, coast, mountain, bathed by the waters of the Cantabrian, the Atlantic or of Mediterranean climate. There are also very old, such as Brañoserafounded in the ninth century, and others so recent that their first inhabitants can still tell us about their origins. This is the case of the 300 populations promoted by the Franco dictatorship as part of its colonization policy. The peoples “Invented” By Franco. A figure: 55,000. The idea is so crazy, so huge, that often It is said which motivated one of the population displacements most important of the Spain of the twentieth century. Between 1940 and 1970 The Franco regime founded around 300 locations in 27 provinces (half in Andalusia and Extremadura) that ended up causing the displacement of 55,000 familiespeople who a good day made their bags and left their native municipalities attracted by the promises of these new -wedge settlements. “Peoples of Colonization”. The colossal project was developed under the auspices of the National Institute of Colonization (the Incan entity created After the civil war To carry out the Franco agricultural policy) and their promises were of course suggestive: families willing to move to the new settlements were offered homes and wide irrigation lands in which a future is carved. All this in property. At least in theory. Input, the settlers had to meet certain requirements. The lots were supposedly distributed by raffle, although there are who holds That not all candidates started with the same possibilities: Ideally was that they were part of large families (with children willing to work) and adjusted to the archetype dreamed by Francoism: devout, laborious Catholics and to be possible Without links With reprisals. Nor did everyone start with the same conditions. As remember ABCin 1945 the government approved an order that regulated how the colonists could access the houses, something that depended on their savings. Under the tutelage of the INC. Who could advance part of the value of the land (20%) entered a phase that the INC called “access to property”. Then they had to pay the rest of the amount to become owners of their homes and farms. The thing changed for the humblest settlers. They had to spend five years in “Tutela period”, a stage during which the Institute supervised what they cultivated and remained a portion of the crops as payment. Villalba de Calatrava, a town of colonization of the Calatrava Campo (Ciudad Real) Campo. How long did they spend like this? Depends. ABC appointment A town where that tutelage lasted until almost the end of the 60s, a time to which the families had to add the “access to property” stage. The newspaper also speaks of 25 -year deadlines to finish paying the lands (30 in the case of homes) with more than considerable interests, 3% or even 7%. To complete the picture, the INC had a structure that was in charge of “guardianship” the families of settlers through intermediate charges. In the first place were the agronomists, authors of the plans. Its guidelines passed to the expert and below this was the Mayoral, who supervised the farmers. And what was the goal? With the new settlement the Franco regime pursued several objectives. The program served to boost the Agrarian transformation (With irrigation extensions), expand the cultivable area, repopulate and transform the Spanish field, but also had an ideological background. With the new settlements, many baptized with names that They mentioned to the new regime and its referents (Caudillo Alberche, Villafranco del Guadiana either Águeda del Caudillo), The dictatorship also sought to project a new image and feed its advertising. The expansion of the new villages coincided with The bet of the dictatorship by hydraulic infrastructure. “The political strategy of the new State replaces the redistribution of the land (objective of the Second Republic) with a colonization policy based on the transformation of the rural that allowed to settle in villages of colonization a self -sufficient peasant”, Remember from the Ministry of Agriculture, on which the National Institute depended after its creation, in October 1939. A program with lights … The colonization policy of Francoism had social, economic, agricultural and even “undeniable” repercussions, such as They recognize From the ministry. And not only because the creation of hundreds of villages for Repopulation of the ’emptied Spain’ and postwar. Among the displaced there were those who, upon their arrival at the settlements, found infrastructures and unimaginable services in the villas from which they came. “When we got here it was like dreaming awake,” He recounts The country A retired farmer who arrived in Villalba in Calatrava (Ciudad Real) with his parents in 1964, when he was 12 years old. “There was a bathroom, with its cup and sink. In those years that had no one! He was very small, but having something like that was out of series.” The idea was that in the new settlements the settlers could opt for a house in fertile property and lands, contributing in passing to the economy of postwar Spain and the conversion of fields into irrigation. … And also with shadows. Not everything was positive. Despite the promises of housing and lands, many settlers to reach the property cost them years of sweat delivering part of their crops. “We were slaves,” confesses a The country Another old settler of The Bazanawhere he arrived with just 17 or 18 years. In 2018, already after 85, he remembered: “They paid you what they wanted for the crops, and then there came a point where they stopped buying them because the beans from Badajoz were very expensive.” The cultivation of the new lands was not always simple, just as it was not to follow the guidelines marked by the engineers and major people of the town. Others left their lifelong locations to move to new wedge settlements in which they had no roots, they were surrounded by strangers and (sometimes) they met half -finished works. “When … Read more

In his plan to take the subway to every corner of the province, Granada has broken the cable that takes the Internet to its villages

by

The expansion works of the Granada Metro to the Metropolitan Area, specifically to the municipalities of Churriana and Las Gabias, They started in September 2013. After six years of line operation between albolote and armilla (touring a good part of Granada along the way), this extension was key to connecting Granada with two of its closest municipalities. A work that began with delays, whose completion was scheduled for summer of this 2025 and that, along the way, is causing occasional headache to its neighbors. Who has stepped on the cable?. On April 9, who writes these words had to move to the center of Granada from the municipality of Las Gabias for a simple reason: he had no internet connection (or wifi, or dat0s). A blackout that left without connection To a good part of the town of Las Gabias and adjacent areas. Digi technicians confirmed to us in later days that the incidence occurred because of a human error in the subway works, affecting the fiber optic ducts of a good part of the Teleoperators. And who has step on it again?. Just a month after the first incident, a good part of the southern zone of Granada has left without connection again. Local media They report that, on this occasion, the rupture has affected the municipalities of Churriana de la Vega, Armilla, Las Gabias, Gabia Chica, Hijar, El Ventorrillo, Vegas del Genil and border areas. Civil Protection affirms That a break in the works at the height of the Armilla Air Base has affected Movistar and Masmobic fiber optic services. Repair. Technicians contacted with Xataka explain to us that fiber optic ducts contain tubes of different operators. If the breakdown affects the full duct, there are several companies that run out of the Internet. If the rupture is severe, the wiring of both ends is completely replaced and merges with the undamaged to restore the normality of the service. It is a process that, depending on the severity and affected area, can take from a few hours to be completely solved. Some locations began to recover the connection from 10:00 p.m., although there are still many that are still without it at the time we write this article. The Granada Metro. Granada has been trying for years expand your subway line as part of its metropolitan transport plan in the Granada area. Some areas They are already advanced by 50%and local surveys place the satisfaction of its users in a remarkable alteither. Since its inauguration in 2017, the Metro has contributed to the decrease in the use of the private car in the city, improving air quality and redoubling efforts to Install air pollution sensors. Has managed to increase the number of public transport users. Despite problems related to Shocks, abusesand political discussions After its implementation, the Metro convinces the local population… even if they cut the cable from time to time by human errors. Image | Granada subway In Xataka | More and more public transport networks are going to renewables. And the Málaga subway is the last example

Two villages in Cantabria want to join through a new road. They have encountered an obstacle: the bear

by

On paper the project of the Reinosa-Potes road It is ‘alone’ that: the project of a new road between two Cantabrian regions, an infrastructure not excessively long (14 or 20 kmdepending on the option that is chosen) that would mobilize about 100 million euros in investment. That on paper. In practice the idea has generated a considerable debate In Cantabria in which two other hot issues are played in The region Spain: the Tourist and the complex balance in protection of the brown bear. The debate is served. What happened? That in the Cantabrian policy an old project recovered by the PP government is gaining prominence: the Potes-Reinosa road, a vial of some 14 or 20 kilometers (depending on the alternative that is chosen) that I would unite the regions of Campoo and Liebana crossing the heart of the Cantabrian mountain range. The idea is not new. He already tried to get ahead in the 90s, at the time of the president Juan Hormaecheaalthough its origins can go back further, at the end of the Decade of 1960. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Why is it important? Because, beyond its extension, technical characteristics or budget, estimated among the 90 and 100 million eurosthe Potes-Reinosa road project has implications that play some of the most relevant songs of Cantabrian (and Spanish) news: Touristintegration and environmental conservation, directly affecting, according to their detractors, the efforts to recover the brown bear in the region. And what is the reason? That the road (a new section from the CA-183 and the PK 20 of the CA-184 endowed with two lanes of 3.5 meters) would pass through the heart of the Cantabrian mountain range. And so, They warn their detractorsit would have an environmental impact of draft. “The northern slope of the Sierra del Cordel and the Sierra de Híjar, both included in the Special Conservation Zone (ZEC) ‘Altos del Nansa and Saja and Alto Campoo’ would A manifesto that exceeds 1,900 signatures and has the support of at least 200 experts. In The documentpromoted by Cantabrist and individuals, including scientists and researchers of ecology, zoology, geography and hydraulic, the reasons why they reject the new road are used. But above all there is one of weight: its impact on habitats and species that seeks to protect precisely the ZEC zone declaration. “It would not only endanger valuable mountain ecosystems, but would go against the conservation commitments of Spain.” And what do the bears have to do? That is another of the weight arguments put in The manifestoin which in addition to warning that the new road “would fragment” habitats, “would alter” ecological corridors and vehicle traffic would generate noise and light pollution, warn of the impact that it would have in particular on the populations of bears. “The road crosses the areas delimited by the Pardo Bear Recovery Plan in Cantabria,” ditch. “These areas have been specifically designated for the protection and recovery of an endangered species, whose habitat is already seriously fragmented,” The manifesto wields Before pointing out that the works could lead to sanctions and challenges. In the event that the project is carried out and the works are terminated, Cantabristas points the risk of bear abuses. Why is it interesting? The warning connects with the debate about the recovery of the bear in the Peninsular North. After being almost convicted of The disappearance for the harassment of the poachers and the deterioration of their habitat, the bear populations in the Cantabrian mountain range and other parts of the country They have increased In recent years, which in turn has had multiple derivatives. In Asturias or León there are ranchers, Farmers and neighbors that They warn Of their negative impact, while in Somiedo, Asturias, they have seen in the populations of bears A powerful tourist reef that attracts every summer to thousands of visitors who aspire to see copies in freedom in the Cantabrian mountain range. Now in Cantabria they warn of the damage that would cause the noise and traffic of the new road in the behavior of the bears and their mating. “It would be incompatible with the conservation objectives”, They need. A tourist road? The project touches another of the hottest issues in Cantabria: the risk of tourist massification, which He has already taken Thousands of neighbors to the street shouted from “We do not want to be the Ibiza del Norte”. He manifest Remember that Liébana and Campoo, the regions that would connect the vial, are “two widely tourist areas” and questions the real objective of the project, taking into account that both populations are already “connected through other routes of the road network.” “At a time when sustainability and conservation must be priorities, and in a context of accelerated climate change and global biodiversity crisis, this type of macroprojects that serve only to massify tourism go in the opposite direction,” They add The detractors. As a Cantabrist complaint even deployed a banner close to 30 meters In Peña Labra in which “our mountains defend themselves.” And why are you worried? In An interview With eldiario.es, the mayor of Potes María José Bustamante (PSOE) pointed in the same direction: “We understand that the enormous environmental cost or should or should be assumed because the only mobile we find to have launched this pharaonic project is none other than the tourist, and that is what we are already served in Liébana.” Over the last months the region has reached take action To limit the influx of visitors at certain iconic points, such as the Cabezón de la Sal or the Lighthouse of the Horse of Santoña. Are all criticism? No. The Government of Cantabria defend The importance of the project and questions that actions such as Cantabristas really represent the feeling of the inhabitants of the region. His Development Councilor, Roberto Media, also insists that the infrastructure is “of first necessity for many” Cantabrians, not a work designed for tourists. Moreover, the leader warns that … Read more

The rebirth of an old system that is illuminating remote villages in India: the hydraulic wheel

by

While the big cities They have opted for self -consumption through solar panels and even wind turbinesmany remote areas of the world still fight to have a renewable system. However, in Kashmir, they have found a cheap, effective and inspired solution in the past: the hydraulic wheel. An old advance. Surely the name of the hydraulic wheel will not come a direct image to the head, but if I describe a inn away from an village in the central European area, which had a large wheel shape that spinned with the water can be more enlightening. The fact is that they were important during the industrial revolution To perform mechanical tasks such as milling or hammering. However, its use began to decrease with the expansion of burning fossil fuels and the development of electricity. However, like fashions, everything comes back, and more if the original idea was good. So with the rise of renewable energies, hydraulic wheels have resurfaced as a viable option to produce electricity in a clean and continuous way in remote and impoverished areas. A new clean source. Initial investments in renewables usually have a high cost that not everyone can afford. But what if they turn to an old energy system? That is what a group of researchers from the Technical University of Munich thought that They have managed to install A hydraulic wheel in a town of Kashmir, India. The wheel in question measures about two meters and lets the stream water pass to produce electricity. In this way, it provides an uninterrupted energy source to the community, so it does not need centralized power, which was previously a problem with frequent cuts. In addition, the hydraulic wheel is accompanied by the use of other renewable energy systems, including the Decentralized microredwhich allows the inhabitants of the people to enjoy energy independence and resilience before a possible blackout. Self -sufficient One of the highlights of the hydraulic wheel is its high efficiency, reaching the 85% energy conversion. As for the assembly cost of this system, it is relatively low, around $ 1,000, so it makes them accessible to different impoverished rural communities. In addition, the design is available on the Internet for free. Only in rural areas. Hydraulic wheels are designed for rural and remote areas, specifically in communities that need a continuous and reliable energy source. This type of system offers a simple and economical way to generate electricity without depending on fossil fuels or intermittent energy sources. In addition, its environmental impact is minimal, since they do not emit carbon and, According to studiesdamage to aquatic life is reduced. While this type of technology has limitations and is not suitable for all contexts, its potential to improve the energy self -sufficiency of small communities could make a considerable difference. More for the world. The benefits of this technology are not limited to Kashmir. A similar system has been implemented in Nepal and a prototype has been developed in Tegernsee, Germany. In addition, in Northern Ireland, a hydraulic wheel has been restored with an old mill in Fermanagh County, which now supplies electricity to a restaurant. Image | The Waterwheel Project V1.0 Xataka | China prepares the most expensive megaestructure on the planet: a hydroelectric power plant on the most controversial place possible

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.