Technology plays a key role, from design to day-to-day management, combining surprise with safety and rational use of resources
CHARO BARROSO.— Technology in the water park sector seeks to surprise the user, but also allows for greater efficiency and safety. Water World, located in Lloret de Mar (Gerona), has just celebrated its 40th anniversary and as part of the festivities has made a 10 million euros investment in innovation and new attractions. The latest attraction is the Tornado King. This is one of the largest complexes in Europe (150,000 square metres, 35 attractions and a self-limited maximum capacity of 6,000 daily visitors). It expects to close 2025 with 225,000 visitors, with an equal distribution between national and international visitors. France, England, Holland and Germany are the countries from which most foreign tourists come.
Technology serves the main objective of user safety, thanks to protocols, specialised personnel and automated mechanical systems, explains the general director, Julian López-Arenas: “New attractions already incorporate technological measures that are designed, as they always have been, for user safety. Tornado King, unique in Europe (there are only ten others in the world), features technology from the Canadian company ProSlide, one of the major manufacturers”.
The main novelty is flow-control. Thanks to four flowmeters at different points of the attraction, “we can measure the necessary amount of water for the attraction to work. If there is a lack, a traffic light turns on that prevents the boats (with up to five users) from continuing to go down. Water, in this case, is an element used to slow down speed. More flow, less speed”, he adds.
Another centre of the company is Aquadiver, in Platja d’Aro. Other notable attractions are the water roller-coasters. “They consist of safety elements formed by sets of photoelectric cells. If the boat (two people) does not clear the section in a predetermined time, the system slows down the next boat to prevent a collision”, details Lopez-Arenas.
Sustainability, focused on reducing water consumption, is another purpose of Water World and Aquadiver, which use sprinkler and drip irrigation to care for green areas. “This year,” he indicates, “we have begun to implement that all water resulting from the cleaning of filters to maintain the sanitary quality of our pools and slide receptions is reused. We send it to a tank and treat it to irrigate certain areas. In addition, there are no taps, only push buttons that also save water”. With the filtering and re-use system, it is expected to avoid the expenditure of at least 10,000 cubic metres. In terms of energy efficiency, the park’s motors have speed variators that reduce electricity consumption by 40%.
Design with BIM
Among the use of new technologies, Amusement Logic, a company based in Valencia, stands out for using BIM (Building Information Modelling) methodology in the design of water parks. Paco Caudet, the Business Development Director, comments that in Spain the use of BIM, “although it has advanced, is much less common than in other parts of the world”. “As we are an international company, we are used to working with this system”, he points out.
Coordination between structures, architecture, engineering, and hydraulic needs is simpler with BIM, Caudet clarifies: “It makes the model coherent and allows everyone to access information in the same place”.
Projects follow a process. “The first thing to do is the conceptual design,” he states. “To consider whether what we want to build makes sense from an economic and product point of view. We need to know how the business works. The number of people it can accommodate, the changing rooms, bathrooms, water areas and attractions needed are also evaluated. With the economic valuation, we ensure that the investment is profitable”.
The next step, he relates, is the request for construction permits; “here the technical and architecture department that develops the preliminary project intervenes”. “It can be done with traditional models or with BIM. This is the time to propose a more adjusted budget. From here, the executive project is carried out, with the plans that will be implemented”, he emphasizes.
The company has designed more than 500 water parks in thirty countries (Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt…), explains Caudet: “Most of the centres in Spain were built in the 80s and 90s, when current tools were not available. Now we do turnkey projects. Gone are the days when we only designed, manufactured, and installed slides, when the company was founded in 1996”, he explains.
Currently, Amusement Logic is working on the theming of Six Flags Qiddiya City, an amusement park located in Al-Qiddiya, Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). Regarding sustainability, Caudet recalls that, “everything is focused on reducing water consumption as much as possible”.
Source: ABC – Empresa
Author: CHARO BARROSO
