Environmental impact on QLegend Trail

On May 30 and 31 and June 1, 2014, the second edition of the Quixote Legend Trail Race Stages was held in the Sierras de Alcaraz and Segura, an event that exceeded all expectations of interest and affluence and in which Environmental Ideas, continuing with its environmental impact studies initiated in the pre-organizational and organizational phases, he provided for the career phase the figure of the environmental referee.

This technician or environmental referee analyzed the foreseeable impacts of the race from within the race together with the runners, in order to assess the possible impacts produced as objectively as possible.

The following are the techniques used and the methodology for analyzing the impacts that could be expected to occur and which was already discussed in the first post of the Quixote Legend Trail environmental analysis :

1. The analysis of soil damage (compaction due to trampling or the circulation of emergency vehicles and increased risk of erosion) was carried out through the following actions.

• Control of the use of existing tracks by emergency or assistance vehicles.
• Ctrl The visu of roads and crossing areas in order to observe symptoms of erosion after the passage of corridors.

State of a stretch of forest after the race

2. The analysis of damage to vegetation (caused by the normal course of the test) or to sensitive or protected vegetation (due to uncontrolled incidents such as taking shortcuts in the race, access to emergency vehicles, etc.) was carried out using the following actions:

• Determination of the loss of vegetation cover using software whose input are digital photos of the sample surface taken before and after the passage of the corridors:

Square meter used for vegetation damage sampling

3. As for the damage to the fauna due to disturbances due to noise and the presence of runners, this was analyzed as follows:

• Different measurements were taken with a sound level meter, to determine the noise caused by the passing of the race at different points on the route.

Runner passing by the sound level meter in full measurement

4. The damage to the landscape caused by the dispersion of non-hazardous waste was controlled as follows:

• Realization of linear transects on the same race track, in search of waste until 20% of the test is completed.

Remaining gel closure found.

The results have been as expected in the pre-organizational and organizational phases, the impacts are of little magnitude in all cases

1. The damage to the ground is not appreciable despite the strong pressure exerted on days such as Sunday the 1st when 3 different tests coincided, the effects are even lower than those produced by the wooden removal routes that were found in the surrounding area. Runners' support poles often promote soil aeration and prevent the removal of land.

2. The loss of vegetation cover calculated through the sampling of one square meter arranged before and after the passage of the race shows results of less than 3% of vegetation.

3. The noise levels recorded in the most sensitive areas did not record levels higher than 45 dB (A), only in the outputs of the smaller QTS tests these levels were exceeded due to the presence of the PA system, in any case, these outputs were in anthropized areas close to roads or towns.

4. The dispersion of non-hazardous waste was minimal thanks to the awareness of the runners, less than 20 waste units were located, the highest percentage fell on degradable organic waste (especially shells), fractions of containers (caps and gel closures) and finally, unused energy foods were found.

In short, the tests are considered compatible with the environment, because they are tests with an optimal number of runners from an environmental point of view and especially to the awareness of runners.