Reland Hidro · since 2016
We restore mountain streams and wetlands, build lagoons and natural swimming ponds, and lay out farms and neighborhoods so rain stays in the land, with Keyline design and sustainable drainage.
Argentine Patagonia. Stock footage
Services
Three environments, one job: understanding where water wants to go and designing with it. Open any service to see what it includes.
01Natural environment
In the natural environment, Reland manages projects that restore the original landscape, placing elements that support and speed up the regenerative processes of river systems. Restoring streams, wetlands and floodplains is how a landscape recovers and how biological corridors cross the land again.
Reland is one of the first companies in Argentina to plan river and stream restoration in a sustainable, environmentally sound way. We create landscape from a holistic perspective, integrating hydraulics with native fauna and flora, and giving rivers and streams their life and rhythm back.
The most common practices
Wetland and lagoon restoration is a broad subject and can draw on the techniques of river restoration. Wetlands are often very sensitive sites with complex biota, and many are protected by regulation.
Reland offers a wide range of wetland creation and restoration services.
Includes
An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) identifies, predicts, evaluates and mitigates the impacts a project or activity may have on the environment in the short, medium and long term, before the decision to build it is made.
In Argentina it is a preventive technical and administrative procedure under General Environmental Law 25,675, which lets the competent authority decide on a project's environmental viability with full information. The authority responds with an Environmental Impact Statement (DIA) or an Environmental Aptitude Certificate (CAA), depending on each jurisdiction.
Planting riverbanks is a simple, inexpensive way to protect and improve water quality with native plant communities. It also stabilizes the banks and prevents erosion.
Trees and shrubs give shade and keep the water temperature steady, ideal for nutrient exchange and for aquatic life. Rivers close to urban development need careful management.
Our team brings together environmental engineers, agronomists, landscape designers, biologists and architects, so each project is approached as a whole. We design in streams, channels, lagoons, wetlands and floodplains.
We model to design precisely, and we survey the existing site with precise instruments, so we work knowing the site's history.
Some of our tools
We can work with you from the preliminary design stage, advising on and setting guidelines that make every decision in the project more sustainable.
Once a project is advanced these proposals are harder to bring in, so it pays to set environmental criteria from the very first stages.
02Rural environment
On farmland we propose highly productive systems built on chains of ecological processes. We design production models with strong interaction between their parts, for resilience and efficiency in the use of what the land already has. Soil restoration and conservation come first: soil is a producer's most important capital.
Keyline is a design method that treats the productive life of any farm as a whole. Infrastructure is laid out and production planned around the site's own climate, geography, hydrology, soils, energy and environment, to create a productive ecosystem where resources are reused, recycled and reduced.
Reland is one of the first companies in Argentina to bring in and apply this Australian method. We design Keyline patterns that make the most of rainfall, prevent erosion and store water for later use.
Keyline design includes
For producers who want to understand how water behaves on their land, we survey the site and its topography and then read, with GIS software and hydraulic models, how rainwater moves across the ground.
Hydrological analysis includes
Reland offers a range of erosion control solutions for farmland, fitted to the production layout: structural works, which need space and machinery, and decision support, with guidelines that reduce the impact of production on the land.
Some of the most common practices
The description of this service is pending.
Biogas is a mixture of gases with 60 to 70% methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen and other gases, produced by fermentation.
It is a valuable source of heat, mechanical power and electricity. Unlike other renewables it can be stored and produced continuously, whatever the weather. After fermentation, the digester leaves a liquid residue of very high value as a biofertilizer.
Producing your own inputs improves margins by removing the dependence on external suppliers. Crop cycles shorten, returns come sooner, and the harvest has better commercial quality and nutritional value.
Making your own inputs is a decisive step in a project's productive and economic efficiency, and it reduces the negative side effects of farming.
03Urban environment
In towns and on their edges we design Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) that reduce the impact of the storms behind floods. With a proper drainage study, landscape elements are placed to slow, hold, store, filter, infiltrate and treat runoff before it reaches the receiving waters.
We advise on and design these systems so urban projects manage water sustainably. Water management is a key point whenever urban infrastructure is sited.
The most common elements
Rainwater harvesting collects, stores and reuses roof runoff, reducing runoff volume and peak flows. Cistern, flexible and precast ferrocement tanks are used for domestic supply rather than irrigation, and most systems are modular, so tanks can be linked for more storage.
Drain grates keep debris out of the runoff. When rainwater is used for drinking, filtration and purification equipment is added.
We believe food should be grown in cities as well as in the country. Reland builds urban gardens end to end, from preparing the ground to after the first crop cycle.
Organic food growing is a culture we want to encourage in the city, for the quality of the food and to bring consumers and producers closer.
Many water bodies suffer eutrophication: algae grow exponentially, dissolved oxygen drops and life becomes hard for everything else that lives there.
Floating islands planted with aquatic species add oxygen and remove excess dissolved nutrients. They are a simple, economical answer for water bodies in a critical state, need minimal upkeep, blend into the landscape and increase biodiversity.
Treatment wetlands, also called constructed or artificial wetlands, are wastewater treatment systems designed to separate contaminants and manage waste properly.
We advise on, design and engineer treatment wetlands for wastewater purification.
Knowing how much rainwater a site has means knowing its climate and then working out a water balance. That is what any drainage or storage element is sized from.
We hand the client the information any project that treats water as a resource needs.
Made to measure
Every piece of land is different. Pick what looks most like yours and we will write the message for you to send on WhatsApp.
Your message
Pick one option at each step and your message appears here.
Method
Before moving any earth we survey and model: how the rain falls, where the water runs and what the site needs. We work knowing its history.
How we read it
Each point is a project in Argentina.
Completed projects
Since 2016 we have worked on hydrological projects that respect nature and support the ecological processes already there. An interdisciplinary team for the complexity of each place.
Featured project
Bariloche, Río Negro
22 projects
Swipe to see more
About
Reland works on the conservation, regeneration, restoration and maintenance of river environments. We take on projects that need a careful reading of their surroundings, and we provide the tools to manage water as a resource.
Our interdisciplinary team covers the particular needs of each project.
To increase the value of a property sustainably, putting the resources of its natural environment first, on farmland and in towns alike.
To be a company that drives, promotes and takes an active part in the rural and urban transition towards sustainable models of growth.
Since 2016
Full name
Role on the team
Full name
Role on the team
Full name
Role on the team
Full name
Role on the team
Testimonials
A client's words go here: what was wrong with their land and how it turned out.
Client name
Property, place and the work done
A client's words go here: what was wrong with their land and how it turned out.
Client name
Property, place and the work done
A client's words go here: what was wrong with their land and how it turned out.
Client name
Property, place and the work done
Publications and teaching
Book
Claudia Feijoó (ed.), chapter 08
A book on how to reach a new social and environmental contract with our rivers and streams. In chapter 08 we set out the method of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, with the work done on the Costanera Norte in Buenos Aires.
Magazine
Revista Jardín, March 2020
Revista Jardín published the landscape project built on the Paseo del Bajo in Buenos Aires, on which Reland advised on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems.
Teaching
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Landscape Architecture postgraduate program
Since 2020, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella has invited us to teach a seminar on hydrological design and irrigation to its Landscape Architecture postgraduate students.
Competition
With Grinc
Advice on Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems for the Mendoza City Eco-park competition.
Contact
Tell us where your land is and what you would like to achieve: on WhatsApp, by email or with the form.
