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3.2.2 The Llobregat river basin

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The Llobregat River (Chapter 6, Section 1, Figure 7) is a 165 km long river placed in a 4,948 km 2 wide catchment with mixed substrate (Sabater et al., 2012) . It is a greatly modified catchment (Becker 2014) located in a partially agricultural setting. Many changes were made through the addition of hydroelectric power plants and 3 dams. The first dam , La Baells,   is in the main river axis and two in the Cardener tributary (Marcé et al. 2012) . It is one of the most populated basins of the Catalan river system, since more than 3 million people occupy it. Most of the demographic density is at the lower course. There, agricultural and industrial pressures affect the river quality to a high degree. This Basin suffers both anthropological and natural pressures. Some of the headwater streams, such as Saldes and Gavarresa, have a naturally high salt concentration created by halite substrate. It can have up to 20 times the marine salt concentration depending on flow (Badia Guitart
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3.2 The Ebro River Basin

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The Ebro river basin (Chapters 4, 5, and 6, Section 3) is the biggest catchment of the Iberian Peninsula flowing west to east, coursing into the Mediterranean (Figure 6). It is more than 85,000 km 2 wide and exposed to quite variable climates due to its size, wherein the west rainfall is heavier and flows are higher (Barceló et al. 2011) . Orography does also vary. The southern riverbank is relatively low in altitude in relation to the northern. The latter is mostly located on the Basque-Cantabrian mountains and the Pyrenees. The eastern river side passes the lower Catalan coastal mountain ridge.   Figure 6 Subdivisions of the Ebro river Basin into Ecoregions. Points = exemplary diatom sampling in 2013.   The Ebro river basin is conformed by 702 rivers and tributaries that conform this basin with a combined length of approximately 12,00 km [www.chebro.es]. Natural rivers predominate, with 70 very modified rivers and two “artificial” ones. There are 102 lakes in the basi
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