Elena López-Gunn

Application of a water–energy–food nexus framework for the Duero river basin in Spain

This paper proposes a framework for the identification, assessment and analysis of the water–energy–food nexus at a basin scale. This methodology is applied to the Duero river basin in Spain to detect the most important conflicts derived from water, food and energy interdependencies. Some of the most important issues are the limitations posed by rising energy prices for irrigated agriculture due to modernization, limitations to water treatment, and the possible emergence of new water demands for energy by hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas and enhanced bioenergy.

The Spanish water “pressure cooker”: Threading the interplay between resource resilient water governance outcomes by strengthening the robustness of water governance processes

This paper uses the metaphor of a pressure cooker to highlight how water problems in Spain are highly geographical and sectorial in nature, with some specific hotspots which raise the temperature of the whole water complex system, turning many potentially solvable water problems into ‘wicked problems’. The paper discusses the tendency for water governance to be hydrocentric, when often the drivers and in turn the “solutions” to Spanish water problems lie outside the water sphere. The paper analyzes of the current water governance system by looking at water governance as both a process, and its key attributes like participation, transparency, equity and rule of law, as well as an analysis of water governance as an outcome by looking at efficiency and sustainability of water use in Spain. It concludes on the need to have a deeper knowledge on the interactions of water governance as a process and as an outcome and potential synergies and arguing that water governance is an inherently political process which calls for strengthening the capacity of the system by looking at the interactions of these different governance attributes. Keywords: water governance, institutional reform, water resources, water scarcity, water framework directive.

The Western Mancha aquifer: data mapping to provide transparency to aid stakeholder participation and decision making

Abstract Please click here to download the map associated with this article. The paper presents a series of maps on the Western Mancha aquifer, an aquifer of 5,500 km2, extending over an area of 41 villages in the region of La Mancha, in the central Spanish plateau. Maps were produced using cartograms, which highlight the differential groundwater use at the local level of the municipality, looking at equity and efficiency issues related to groundwater. The main purpose of the paper is to provide comprehensive, transparent and easily understandable mapping of groundwater use in a region where data is abundant but not necessarily consistent, clear or presented in an easily accessible or understandable format. The paper provides a meta-analysis in the form of maps of available data as a result of a large number of European research projects, national and European policy initiatives, but where a general multi-disciplinary and summative overview is still lacking. This mapping can contribute to decision making in public policy, as support for compliance with the European Union Water Framework Directive on good ecological status, in an area where there are competing, and in many ways incompatible, water demands between irrigation and wetlands. This analysis highlights that a spatially differentiated approach could provide win-win scenarios, i.e. intensive groundwater use and wetland protection.

Whither collective action? Upscaling collective actions, politics and basin management in the process of ‘legitimizing’ an informal groundwater economy

This article examines different forms and levels of collective action by aquifer users in securing access to over-allocated groundwater resources using a case study of La Loma, Úbeda (Jaén, Spain), one of the largest olive-growing areas in the world. It shows how opportunities for collective water management increase at the basin level as bargaining spaces increase but also how political rent influences the institutional designs that emerge. The article identifies an opportunity to redesign the organizational and institutional configurations by both securing access to water and strengthening collaborative spaces at the basin level.