The Pyrenees have 6,361 catalogued lakes and ponds, and each one now has an ID card
The same lake can be called Redondo, Redó or Redon. In Colomèrs, two lakes had their names swapped on official maps. The new inventory sets things straight.
A team led by CREAF, with CSIC, CEAB-CSIC and the universities of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has catalogued 6,361 lakes and ponds in the Pyrenees. The inventory is called LacusPyr, covers Spain, Andorra and France, and was published in Geoscience Data Journal.
An ID card for every lake
Each water body has its own georeferenced code, which identifies it even if its name changes. Each entry includes:
- Official names, variants and historical names.
- Surface area, altitude and basin.
- Depth, where known (maximum in 442 cases and mean in 101).
It ranges from lakes more than 100 metres deep to temporary ponds of 2 m².
Why it was needed
The same lake can have different names depending on the language, the period or the map. Redondo, Redó and Redon are the same lake; its official Aranese name is Redon. And each area has its own word: estany in Catalan, estanh or lac in Aranese and ibón in Aragon.
In the Colomèrs cirque, in Aigüestortes National Park, the names of the Plan and Cabidornats lakes were swapped on official maps. First author Jordi Catalan explains that georeferencing “makes it possible to organise information and avoid confusion in scientific studies”.
Some standout lakes
| Lake | Fact |
|---|---|
| Certascan | More than 60 ha, the largest in Catalonia |
| Cregüeña (Maladeta) | More than 100 m deep |
| Redon | About 105 scientific papers; no hydropower use |
Many small ponds dry out in summer. Some of their animals, such as fairy shrimp, survive thanks to resistant eggs that wait in the mud.
The inventory is open: anyone can look up the official names and location of each lake.
Sources and references
- ECOticias – CREAF catalogues 6,361 lakes and ponds in the Pyrenees, in Spanish (04/11/2026)
- Dryad – LacusPyr dataset
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