Abstract
Water scarcity in Spain is driven by substantial irrigation development that took place during last century—first through collective waterworks and more recently by the surge in groundwater pumping. These mounting water scarcity impacts are compounded by quality degradation induced from urban and industrial point pollution, and from agricultural nonpoint pollution. Droughts are a recurrent event in Spain, and the country has progressively developed complex physical and institutional arrangements to cope with droughts—from mild to severe and long-lasting events. But as water scarcity intensifies in nearly all basins, droughts generate higher economic and environmental costs. Environmental effects are especially worrying because adjustments to scarcity and droughts in basins fall mainly on environmental flows, with escalating damages in aquatic ecosystems. While drought measures and plans in Spain have become quite robust and effective in dealing with drought spells, general water policies seem powerless to stop or dampen the worsening water scarcity in basins.
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- 1.
Return flows are 1,200 km3 from irrigation, 750 from industry and 330 from urban use.
- 2.
The largest groundwater extractions by country take place in India, the United States and China with extractions above 100 km3, and in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Iran with extractions above 50 km3 (Björklund et al. 2009; Vrba and Gun 2004). The region of the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra basins is the larger irrigated area in the world, and groundwater overdraft has been estimated at 50 km3 per year from satellite data (Tiwari et al. 2009).
- 3.
In the United States, the NOAA (2008) cost estimates are between 1 and 2 billion US dollars per year, and include only crop and property damages, while FEMA (1995) cost estimates range between 6 and 8 billion US dollars per year. In the European Union, the European Commission (2007a) cost estimates are around 3.3 billion euros per year.
- 4.
Directive 2007/60/EC on the assessment and management of flood risks. The directive requires European countries to assess flood risk and prepare flood management plans.
- 5.
Directives and communications are quite different policy instruments in the European Union. A directive is legally binding and member countries are responsible for its implementation, with infringements involving large monetary penalties. A communication is a declaration of intentions, with voluntary recommendations to member countries not enforceable by any regulatory mechanism.
- 6.
These figures are for consumptive uses, but do not include cooling, hydropower and aquaculture which in 2004 are the following: cooling 6,300 Mm3, hydropower 50,000 Mm3 and aquaculture 3,500 Mm3.
- 7.
An important reason for coordination is the issue of water returns after investing in networks and plot irrigation systems. Water losses in distribution canals and plot irrigation systems return to watersheds, and when water losses are reduced through investments in upgrading networks and irrigation systems, the problem may appear that farmers use the saved water in more water-demanding crops or in expanding irrigation land. The consequence could be an increase in evapotranspiration and the reduction of water flows in watersheds. The solution is reducing water concessions to countervail eventual evapotranspiration increases.
- 8.
There are 180 Mm3 of interbasin transfers to País Vasco and Cataluña supplying urban and industrial uses.
- 9.
Surface water sources supply 1,300 Mm3 for irrigation, 220 for domestic demand, and 80 for industries connected to urban networks. Subsurface water sources supply 1,270 Mm3 for irrigation, 330 for domestic demand, and 100 for industries with direct extractions.
- 10.
For example, the minimum flow at the Magro station in lower Júcar was 0.2 m3/s in the Júcar basin plan of 1998, and this flow is going to be increased to 0.2–0.3 m3/s in the forthcoming plan.
- 11.
See Albiac et al. (2007) for an explanation of why investments in irrigation modernization usually reduce stream flows.
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Albiac, J., Esteban, E., Tapia, J., Rivas, E. (2013). Water Scarcity and Droughts in Spain: Impacts and Policy Measures. In: Schwabe, K., Albiac, J., Connor, J., Hassan, R., Meza González, L. (eds) Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6636-5_18
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