Case Study: Canal de Navarra Irrigation Infrastructure Sustainability; A Balanced Economic, Social and Environmental Assessment at Regional Scale

The paper addresses significant issues closely connected to infrastructure sustainability such as the different approaches to sustainability, the importance of infrastructures for the development of a region and the specificities of agriculture infrastructures. Other topics covered are existing sustainability rating systems, the lack of a standard tool for assessing infrastructure sustainability and the need to take into consideration the financing and the costs of attaining sustainable development. The case study presents a relevant engineering demonstration on how a large water infrastructure-the Canal de Navarra irrigation area, a project developed since 2006 under a PPP design-build-finance-operate scheme in Spain-may have a positive sustainability impact on the territory and people, when measured at a regional scale balancing the economic, social, and environmental points of view.