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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsValencia’s southern Turia diversion was built after the catastrophic 1957 flood to route the river away from its historic course through the city. A later UPV analysis says the new channel and Loriguilla reservoir would have handled distinct parts of that flood, reducing exposure along the old Turia corridor. But the diversion was not a shield for the whole region: the deadly floods of 29 October 2024 involved several waterways, including the Rambla del Poyo–Barranc de Torrent system.
What happened in Valencia in 1957?
In October 1957, the Turia still flowed through Valencia. After heavy rain, it burst its banks and flooded city streets. The Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) reports at least 81 deaths. Two major flood waves reached the city on 14 October, at about 04:00 and 14:30; their reported peak flows were 2,700 m³/s and 3,700 m³/s, respectively. Water exceeded five metres in Calle Doctor Olóriz, according to UPV’s 2016 account of research led by Cristina Puertes and coordinated by Félix Francés.
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The rainfall pattern mattered. Rain on 11 and 12 October helped saturate the ground; rainfall on 13 and 14 October then concentrated runoff and tributary contributions in the middle and lower Turia basin. Puertes described the earlier rain as having helped increase runoff, “dejando el terreno prácticamente saturado” (“leaving the ground practically saturated”). UPV’s account of the 1957 flood study provides the event figures and the researcher’s explanation.
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What was Plan Sur, and why was the Turia diverted?
After the disaster, Valencia pursued a southern solution: a new Turia channel that rerouted the river away from its historic central-city course. The flood-control system discussed in UPV’s analysis also included the Loriguilla reservoir. Together, the two measures changed where water could travel and where it could be held; they were not interchangeable parts of the response.
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In its reconstruction of the 1957 event, UPV used a hydrological model with adjusted infrastructure and land-use assumptions. Its 2016 account says the first flood wave’s volume would largely have been stored at Loriguilla, while the later wave would have reached the new channel. The account reports an evacuation capacity of 5,000 m³/s for that channel and quotes Puertes describing it as a channel “que dispone de una capacidad de evacuación de 5000 m3/s.” That is a study-era capacity statement, not a current engineering certification or a guarantee for every possible flood or operating condition. UPV’s study summary does not quantify how many deaths or how much damage the project prevented in a counterfactual 1957.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did the new Turia channel protect Valencia in the 2024 floods?
It helped carry water along the diverted Turia route, but that does not mean it prevented the wider 2024 disaster. An abstract hosted by the Universitat de València says the new channel’s performance as a discharge channel was demonstrated during the rains, while communities near its right bank suffered worse consequences from overflow in the Rambla del Poyo–Barranc de Torrent system. Both points can be true: infrastructure can reduce exposure along one route while other flood pathways remain dangerous. The Universitat de València article abstract describes this interaction and the adverse impacts near the channel’s right bank.
The October 2024 floods affected eastern Spain through multiple rivers and drainage channels. The European Flood Awareness System’s October–November 2024 bulletin reports AEMET rainfall figures for Turís of 185 l/m² in one hour, 621 l/m² in six hours and 720 l/m² in twelve hours. It says flooding affected the Turia, Júcar and Magro rivers and the Poyo ravine, among other waterways. The bulletin recorded 230 fatalities as of early December 2024; that is a count tied to the bulletin’s date, not an undated current total. Read the EFAS/Copernicus bulletin.
Would Valencia have flooded in 2024 if the Turia had not been diverted?
The available evidence cannot establish that counterfactual. The diversion changed the Turia’s route and helped protect the old Turia corridor, but the 2024 floods also came through separate catchments and waterways, especially the Poyo system. The sources cited here do not calculate how much flooding, damage or loss of life the diversion avoided in 2024, so it would be misleading to say that it alone “saved Valencia” from the disaster.
Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge maintains a National Catalogue of Historical Floods intended to improve flood-risk knowledge and inform preliminary risk assessment. Its catalogue landing page is a route to records, not the source for the specific 1957 and 2024 figures above.
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