SEGURA RIVER

Spanish Ro Segura, river in southeastern Spain. It rises in the Segura Mountains in Jan province and flows east through the driest region of the Iberian Peninsula to enter the Mediterranean Sea south of Alicante, after a course of 212 miles (341 km). Much water is drawn off the Segura and its major tributary, the Guadalentn (Sangonera), to irrigate adjacent huertas (market gardens), especially on the Murcia Plain. Winter floods are notorious on both rivers, but during the summer the streambeds are almost dry. A number of dams have been built on the Segura and its tributaries to control the winter runoff, the largest at Fuensanta. More than 300,000 acres (120,000 hectares) are irrigated or under development.