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This paper is dedicated to the memory of Andres Perez-Estaun, whose friendship, skill, and dedication were essential to this work, but also for his continuous support, discussion, and encouragement in the study of Barcelona geology. The authors wish to acknowledge funding by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness projects: MEPONE (BIA2010-20244) and MEDISTRAES (CGL2013-48869-C2-1-R), and by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Grup Consolidat de Recerca: Grup d'Hidrologia Subterrania, 2009-SGR-1057). We would also like to acknowledge ADIF, GISA, DPTOP Generalitat de Catalunya (Infrastructure administration), Ajuntament de Barcelona, Ajuntament de Sant Adria del Besos, Ajuntament de Badalona, Ajuntament de Santa Coloma de Gramenet, BCASA, BR Urban Development Agency, AMB Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (Local administrations), Catalan Water Agency (ACA), and several companies such as UTELinia9, SACYR, ACCIONA, OHL, GEOCONSULT, FCC, Ferrovial-Agroman, INTECSA-INARSA, COPISA, COPCISA, among others, for their help in providing technical documents and data used for this study, and also, for their support throughout the hydrogeological monitoring and assessment of different civil works.

Analysis of institutional authors

Angel Marazuela, MiguelAuthor

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Article

A geological model for the management of subsurface data in the urban environment of Barcelona and surrounding area

Publicated to:Solid Earth. 7 (5): 1317-1329 - 2016-09-16 7(5), DOI: 10.5194/se-7-1317-2016

Authors: Vazquez-Sune, Enric; Angel Marazuela, Miguel; Velasco, Violeta; Diviu, Marc; Perez-Estaun, Andres; Alvarez-Marron, Joaquina;

Affiliations

CSIC, Inst Earth Sci Jaume Almera ICTJA, Lluis Sole Sabaris S-N, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain - Author
CSIC, Inst Environm Assessment & Water Res IDAEA, Jordi Girona 18, ES-08034 Barcelona, Spain - Author
Univ Politecn Cataluna, Dept Geotech Engn & Geosci, Jordi Girona 1-3, ES-08034 Barcelona, Spain - Author
UPC CSIC, Hydrogeol Grp, Associated Unit, Barcelona, Spain - Author

Abstract

The overdevelopment of cities since the industrial revolution has shown the need to incorporate a sound geological knowledge in the management of required subsurface infrastructures and in the assessment of increasingly needed groundwater resources. Additionally, the scarcity of outcrops and the technical difficulty to conduct underground exploration in urban areas highlights the importance of implementing efficient management plans that deal with the legacy of heterogeneous subsurface information. To deal with these difficulties, a methodology has been proposed to integrate all the available spatio-temporal data into a comprehensive spatial database and a set of tools that facilitates the analysis and processing of the existing and newly added data for the city of Barcelona (NE Spain). Here we present the resulting actual subsurface 3-D geological model that incorporates and articulates all the information stored in the database. The methodology applied to Barcelona benefited from a good collaboration between administrative bodies and researchers that enabled the realization of a comprehensive geological database despite logistic difficulties. Currently, the public administration and also private sectors both benefit from the geological understanding acquired in the city of Barcelona, for example, when preparing the hydrogeological models used in groundwater assessment plans. The methodology further facilitates the continuous incorporation of new data in the implementation and sustainable management of urban groundwater, and also contributes to significantly reducing the costs of new infrastructures.

Keywords

AquifersBasinCitiesExcavationGroundwaterImpactsResourcesSpainUrbanizationWater

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Solid Earth due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2016, it was in position 13/84, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Geochemistry & Geophysics.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from the Field Citation Ratio (FCR) of the Dimensions source, it yields a value of: 4.25, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-21, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 20
  • Scopus: 26
  • OpenCitations: 25

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-21:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 38.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 38 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 2.75.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 5 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.