Huelva () is a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of southern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, in the western part of the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

. It is bordered by

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

, the provinces of

Badajoz Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portugal, Portuguese Portugal–Spain border, border, on the left bank of the river ...

Seville Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Guadalquivir, ...

, and

Cádiz Cádiz ( , , ) is a city in Spain and the capital of the Province of Cádiz in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula off the Atlantic Ocean separated fr ...

, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is

Huelva Huelva ( , , ) is a municipality of Spain and the capital of the Huelva (province), province of Huelva, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia. Located in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, it sits betwee ...

. Its area is 10,148 km². Its population is 483,792 (2005), of whom about 30% live in the capital, and its population density is 47.67/km². It contains 79 municipalities. The economy is based on

agriculture Agriculture encompasses crop and livestock production, aquaculture, and forestry for food and non-food products. Agriculture was a key factor in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created ...

and

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

. The famous Rio Tinto mines have been worked since before 1000 BC, and were the major source of copper for the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. As an indication of the scope of ancient mining, sixteen million tons of Roman slag have been identified at the Roman mines. British companies resumed large-scale mining in 1873; the district is the namesake of the

Rio Tinto Group Rio Tinto Group is a British-Australian multinational company that is the world's second largest metals and mining corporation (behind BHP). It was founded in 1873 when a group of investors purchased a mine complex on the Río Tinto, in Hu ...

. In the 21st century, municipalities such as Moguer,

Palos de la Frontera Palos de la Frontera () is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the southwestern Spain, Spanish province of Huelva (province), Huelva, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is situated some from the provincial capi ...

, and Lepe, have witnessed the development of intensive water-demanding strawberry farming, which has elicited attention on the basis of alleged mispractices and abuses regarding the labor conditions of foreign workers and the ecocidal depletion of water resources in Doñana. The province contains

, and Moguer, where

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

sailed out of on his first voyage in 1492, and shares the Parque Nacional de Doñana, located mainly in Almonte.

Government and administration

Population

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) ImageSize = width:400 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:550 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:50 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo PlotData= color:skyblue width:20 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till bar:1877 from:0 till:209 text:209,194 bar:1887 from:0 till:240 text:240,067 bar:1900 from:0 till:258 text:258,143 bar:1910 from:0 till:296 text:295,898 bar:1920 from:0 till:332 text:331,527 bar:1930 from:0 till:355 text:355,441 bar:1940 from:0 till:375 text:375,180 bar:1950 from:0 till:370 text:369,722 bar:1960 from:0 till:405 text:404,517 bar:1970 from:0 till:403 text:403,405 bar:1980 from:0 till:419 text:418,584 bar:1990 from:0 till:443 text:443,476 bar:2000 from:0 till:463 text:462,579 bar:2010 from:0 till:520 text:519,895 bar:2020 from:0 till:524 text:524,278 TextData= pos:(35,20) fontsize:M text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"

Tourism

The delayed tourist development of the province has allowed better city planning than in other regions on the Spanish coast. The nuclei of Islantilla and Isla Canela are an example of this attempt to plan in a more coherent form. Although in a smaller scale in comparison to other regions, urban pressure continues. Previous developments that had little planning until recent time are El Rompido, El Portil, Mazagón and Matalascañas (Torre de la Higuera). Although Punta Umbría had its beginnings like pedanía de Cartaya, after the democratization of summer tourism, it began its urban development for its proximity to the capital and its location on the beach. Present development would not endure without tourist activity and its vacation housing. Other tourist areas are Nuevo Umbría, Nuevo Portil, Punta del Moral, La Antilla and Urbasur. The marismas de Isla Cristina, next to the towns of Ayamonte and Isla Cristina, are a protected nature reserve. In the mountain town of Almonaster la Real, the Visigothic-mosque church built in the first decades of the 10th century and whose mihrab is one of the oldest in Spain is one important turistic point. Of note is Huelva's recent classification of “rural tourism” for its interior mountain range.

Green electricity

Huelva has 388

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s (MW) of

wind power Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ge ...

, 68 MW

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

power, and 66 MW of

solar power Solar power, also known as solar electricity, is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Solar panels use the photovoltaic effect to c ...

. A 220

kilovolt The volt (symbol: V) is the unit of electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force in the International System of Units (SI). Definition One volt is defined as the electric potential between two point ...

transmission line In electrical engineering, a transmission line is a specialized cable or other structure designed to conduct electromagnetic waves in a contained manner. The term applies when the conductors are long enough that the wave nature of the transmis ...

has been constructed to send power to the main grid as well as improving connections between Spain and Portugal."Iberdrola Renewables starts up the largest wind power facility in Spain".
''EuropaPress'', 11 February 2010. Retrieved: 16 June 2012.

References

External links

*
Natural Park Doñana

Natural Park Sierra de Aracena and Picos de Aroche

at

Mindat.org Mindat.org is a non-commercial interactive online database covering minerals around the world. Originally created by Jolyon Ralph as a private project in 1993, it was launched as a community-editable website in October 2000. it is operated by ...