Huelva () is a

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

of southern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' ( Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, in the western part of the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administr ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...

. It is bordered by

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, In recognized minority languages of Portugal: :* mwl, República Pertuesa is a country located on the Iberian Peninsula, in Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Macaronesian ...

, the provinces of

Badajoz Badajoz (; formerly written ''Badajos'' in English) is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana. The populatio ...

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsul ...

, and

Cádiz Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Huelva. 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 or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peop ...

and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

. 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 ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

. 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. The province contains

Palos de la Frontera Palos de la Frontera () is a town and municipality located in the southwestern Spanish province of Huelva, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is situated some from the provincial capital, Huelva. According to the 2015 census, the c ...

, and Moguer, where

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus * lij, Cristoffa C(or)ombo * es, link=no, Cristóbal Colón * pt, Cristóvão Colombo * ca, Cristòfor (or ) * la, Christophorus Columbus. (; born between 25 August and 31 October 1451, died 20 May 1506) was a ...

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:600 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 Islantilla is a seaside town located next to La Antilla, between the municipalities of Lepe and Isla Cristina, in Andalusia, Spain. Islantilla belongs to a tourist region called "Costa de la Luz". Huelva Huelva (, ) is a city in southweste ...

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 The Marismas de Isla Cristina ("Cristina Island marshes") are located at the mouth of the river Carreras in the province of Huelva, Andalusia, in southern Spain. Created in 1989 (Law 2/89 of the inventory of the Protected Natural Spaces of Andalu ...

, next to the towns of Ayamonte and Isla Cristina, are a protected nature reserve. 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 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 quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after Jame ...

s (MW) of

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historicall ...

, 68 MW

biomass Biomass is plant-based material used as a fuel for heat or electricity production. It can be in the form of wood, wood residues, energy crops, agricultural residues, and waste from industry, farms, and households. Some people use the terms biom ...

power, and 66 MW of

solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic ef ...

. A 220 kilovolt transmission line 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 online database, claiming to be the largest mineral database and mineralogy, mineralogical reference website on the Internet. It is used by professional mineralogists, geologists, and amateur mineral collecting, mi ...