GO INVASOR-ES: Resilience 4.0 of infrastructures and crops against invasive species

The project addresses a major problem at national and European level: the proliferation of Invasive Alien Species (IAS) (the best known being the zebra mussel) in inland waters and their harmful effects on irrigation systems.

According to the Spanish Malacology Society, the zebra mussel alone has caused losses of 1.6 billion euros in the United States. In Spain, the Ministry of the Environment spent 300 million euros on combating the species between 2003 and 2006, allocating an additional annual budget of 100 million euros to control the invasion of the zebra mussel. The estimated economic impact on susceptible irrigation systems (sprinkler, drip and localized) is about 60 million euros per year.

It is worth highlighting the presence of some "traditional" IAS animals (not riparian plants or algae) that have been persistently present for 23 years and have spread to almost all the peninsular basins. The main traditional IAS are the well-known zebra mussel and the Asian clam. However, the list is now joined by the more recent appearance of other "emerging" invasive species such as the apple snail, which also originated in the Ebro River and is spreading through Spanish basins with known impacts on rice production in the Ebro Delta, or the bryozoans that are already affecting different basins.

An invasive species can interact with the environment in a variety of ways when it is introduced. At best, it adapts to the new environment and ends up in relative equilibrium with the pre-existing community without significantly altering it. However, these invasions are characterized, among other things, by high growth rates, great adaptability, strong dispersal capacity and absence of natural enemies in the new ecosystem, whether predators or resource competitors, spreading rapidly and effectively occupying the territory.

There is a classification of impacts based on the irrigation method: flooding, sprinkling and drip. Regardless of the irrigation intake, gates and floodgates in canals with the presence of different IES, where sprinkler, drip or pressure irrigation predominates, the affected facilities are distribution pipes, valves, pressure and lifting pumps, filters and sprinklers. The typology of costs related to the aforementioned impacts refers mainly to the increase in labor costs for maintenance and operation, as well as inputs for cleaning and removal.