In Valladolid, Spain, aggregates are extracted from alluvial land, using gravel and sand deposited by the Pisuerga and Duero rivers. The gravel pits are the land that the city has used to extract the materials needed to produce concrete and asphalt: gravel and sand. As Valladolid developed around the 1970s, the volume and rate of gravel extraction increased. All along the terrace floors of the two rivers, there are areas of gravel pit extraction–some active and many abandoned, unrestored or filled in with rubble or excavation debris.

The photographs show abandoned gravel pits in the area of the river terraces around Valladolid (Quintanilla del Onésimo and Valoria la Buena). The publication concentrates on the most detailed study of one of the gravel pits located within the city, the Pinar de Jalón wasteland, and is an effort to analyse the controversial current state of the land that has given rise to large failed projects. Recently ravaged by fires, the pine forest is of great natural value and should be transformed into a natural space in the future.
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