The agricultural and historical origin of an urban green infrastructure: Madrid-Río

Abstract

Madrid-Río is a recent green infrastructure built in Madrid, a linear park of multiple uses that sought to connect the historic city center with the less favored neighborhoods of the south, to bring them spatial and socioeconomically closer to the center. Our purpose is to detect, in this new urban space, the traces of its origin in agricultural uses linked to the river. These uses widely extended since the city became capital, had their reflection in several historical places, such as Casa de campo, Paseo de Virgen del Puerto, etc., which have been tried to integrate into the new project. The methodology used combines the analysis of historical cartography, with historical data and own analytical planimetry. The findings are to detect historical focal points and their relevance, locate the footprint of spaces of agricultural origin in the current park and, more broadly, assess their value in the functioning of GI.