Paisajes del Valle medio del Guadalquivir cordobés: Funcionalidad y cambios

RESUMEN: Los tradicionales paisajes agrarios del Valle cordobés, ligados a la presencia del Guadalquivir, han sido importantes y tempranas áreas de modernización económica, gracias al desarrollo de la agricultura, el regadío y la industrialización. Sin embargo, esas funciones agrarias, antaño inseparables de la identidad paisajística de los ruedos y el extrarradio de Córdoba, se hallan en retroceso desde el último tercio del siglo XX, un retroceso provocado por la expansión de la ciudad difusa de Córdoba y su rururbanización. Las funciones agrarias de antaño han dejado paso a nuevos usos y a nuevos paisajes, todo ello unido al devenir socioeconómico de la capital y a las demandas que ésta exige de su entorno. El presente artículo, utilizando argumentos y principios geográfi cohistóricos, persigue la descripción y concreción temporal de esos cambios mediante la recopilación documental, fotográfi ca y cartográfi ca, lo que habrá de permitir la reconstrucción de esos cambios paisajísticos y de los signifi cados que se le han atribuido con el paso del tiempo. ABSTRACT: The main purpose of the refl ections set out in this article is to outline and defi ne new lines of research in the conceptualisation and evolution of landscape in the area known as the Valle Medio Cordobés, its terraces and meadow lands, its relationships with the immediate surrounding areas and the city of Córdoba, with a view to sketching the landscape dynamics in the area of study and their evolution from traditional agrarian models to the current situation of predominant rur-urbanisation. This evolutionary reconstruction of the landscape, and the description of territorial relations which explain its changes, can be expressed through the following issues: evolutionary analysis of possible physical alterations in the area of study; examination of cultural and natural relations and dynamics as shapers of the landscape; evolutionary description of the structure of property and the socioeconomic composition of land ownership; dynamic diagnosis of usage; evolution of organised or infrastructural landscape; communication, service and supply links, etc.; and chronological reconstruction of the landscape identity of the area studied. The methodological proposal used, within fl exible parameters, is as follows: search and analysis of historic and recent bibliography; archive search (Municipal Archive of Córdoba, Historic Provincial Archive of Córdoba, Archive of the Hydrographical Confederation of the Guadalquivir, Archive of the Guadalmellato Irrigation Association, Municipal Urban Planning Department, Cadastral Register, General Archive of Simancas, National Historic Archive and Royal Chancery of Granada); search and study of historic and contemporary cartographic sources; and fi eldwork. The fi ndings of this research have revealed, fi rstly, the undisputable strategic value of the Valle Cordobés within the geographic and urban context of the city of Córdoba, since this nucleus, its history and socioeconomic needs have since time immemorial conditioned the uses made of its rural surroundings. Similarly, evolutionary analysis of the territory and the agrarian landscape of its outlying areas shows the existence of an evident dynamic of transformation, destruction and reconstruction, associated with the needs of Córdoba and its inhabitants. From natural corridor and communication link, to the current rur-urban scenario, the Valle Medio Cordobés area has moved through the predominance of extensive agrarian uses, the exploitation of the dehesa pasture lands for livestock, and the introduction of irrigation and agro-industrialisation. And in this development, an intensely humanised environment has been shaped, littered with anthropic imprints and also symbols and identities which have changed along with the predominant uses and demands imposed by the city of Córdoba itself. From the mid 1950s up to the present day, there has been a process of de-agrarianisation in the Valle Cordobés area, accompanied by a division of property which has practically eradicated the former predominance of large Latifundio estates. There has also been a sustained diminishment, particularly since the 1980s, of the irrigable land area of Guadalmellato, which was once particularly highly valued. In addition to the peri-urban growth of Córdoba and Almodóvar, the creation of certain industrial estates, and the increase in residential areas of certain population nucleuses such as Villarrubia, this area has also been witness to a process of rur-urban parcelling. The once extensive swathes of agricultural land have been divided up into small plots of just 1,000 and 1,500 m2, which are now home to chalets, swimming pools, allotments, small industries, and restaurants, etc.