Current anthropogenic pressures on agro-ecological protected coastal wetlands

- Direct and Indirect pressures of urban origin are found in l'Albufera Natural Park.
- Soil sealing was 18.6% in the administrative area in 2011, and 5.2% in the Park.
- A large number of pharmaceuticals (13 out of 17) were detected in surface waters.
- Connectivity is produced between densely populated areas, SWTPs and irrigated land.

Coastal wetlands are areas that suffer from great pressure. Much of it is due to the rapid development of the surrounding artificial landscapes, where socio-economic factors lead to alterations in the nearby environment, affecting the quality of natural and agricultural systems. This work analyses interconnections among landscapes under the hypothesis that urban-artificial impacts could be detected on soils and waters of an agro-ecological protected area, L'Albufera de Valencia Natural Park, located in the vicinity of the City of Valencia, Spain. The methodological framework developed addresses two types of anthropogenic pressure: (1) direct, due to artificialisation of soil covers that cause soil sealing, and (2) indirect, which are related to water flows coming from urban populations through sewage and irrigation systems and which, ultimately, will be identified by the presence of emerging pharmaceutical contaminants in waters of the protected area. For soil sealing, a methodology based on temporal comparison of two digital layers for the years 1991 and 2011, applying Geographical Information Systems and landscapes metrics, was applied. To determine presence of emerging contaminants, 21 water samples within the Natural Park were analysed applying liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry for the detection of 17 pharmaceutical compounds. Results showed that both processes are present in the Natural Park, with a clear geographical pattern. Soil sealing and presence of pharmaceuticals are more intensive in the northern part of the study area. This is related to population density (detection of pharmaceuticals) and land cover conversion from agricultural and natural surfaces to artificial ones (soil sealing).