A socio-ecological model of the Segura River basin, Spain

Paula Andrea Zuluaga-Guerra; Julia Martinez-Fernandez; Miguel Angel Esteve-Selma; Jampel Dell'Angelo

doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110284

A socio-ecological model of the Segura River basin, Spain

Paula Andrea Zuluaga-Guerra^*, Julia Martinez-Fernandez, Miguel Angel Esteve-Selma, Jampel Dell'Angelo

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

The Segura River basin in South-East Spain is home to aquatic and dry-land ecosystems of regional significance. Pressurised, over the course of the last five decades, by interests of agricultural origin, the basin is caught up in a persistent water crisis traversed by conflict and socio-ecological deterioration. This article presents a socio-ecological-system characterisation of the Segura River basin with a focus on the interactions between institutional performance and expectations on irrigation water supply. The contribution of this research is twofold: first, it provides a model that develops a conceptual articulation of a socio-ecological framework in the idiom of Systems Dynamics; second, it generates (both numerical and qualitative) policy-relevant insights into the basin's crisis, in a way that fully reflects its complexity. Our results indicate that ∼333.100 ha of drylands and agro-natural landscapes were lost to agriculture, and that groundwater overexploitation reached ∼500 Hm³ within the 1960-2021 modelling horizon. Our work accurately models the pervasive impacts of intensive agriculture expansion in the Segura basin and portrays some of the socio-ecological consequences of the hydraulic paradigm in Spain, raising crucial doubts on the dominant forms of water governance in the region.

Original language	English
Article number	110284
Pages (from-to)	1-20
Number of pages	20
Journal	Ecological Modelling
Volume	478
Early online date	1 Feb 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110284
Publication status	Published - Apr 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to thank Natalia Buriticá for preparing the map of Figure 1 in this article and to Juan Camilo Afanador for his meaningful reading and advice. The authors have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) grant agreement No. 861509 – NEWAVE.

Funding Information:
The authors have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) grant agreement No. 861509 – NEWAVE.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)

Keywords

Hydraulic paradigm
Irrigated agriculture
Semiarid ecosystems
Socio-ecological systems
System dynamics modelling
Water governance

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2023.110284

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title = "A socio-ecological model of the Segura River basin, Spain",

abstract = "The Segura River basin in South-East Spain is home to aquatic and dry-land ecosystems of regional significance. Pressurised, over the course of the last five decades, by interests of agricultural origin, the basin is caught up in a persistent water crisis traversed by conflict and socio-ecological deterioration. This article presents a socio-ecological-system characterisation of the Segura River basin with a focus on the interactions between institutional performance and expectations on irrigation water supply. The contribution of this research is twofold: first, it provides a model that develops a conceptual articulation of a socio-ecological framework in the idiom of Systems Dynamics; second, it generates (both numerical and qualitative) policy-relevant insights into the basin's crisis, in a way that fully reflects its complexity. Our results indicate that ∼333.100 ha of drylands and agro-natural landscapes were lost to agriculture, and that groundwater overexploitation reached ∼500 Hm3 within the 1960-2021 modelling horizon. Our work accurately models the pervasive impacts of intensive agriculture expansion in the Segura basin and portrays some of the socio-ecological consequences of the hydraulic paradigm in Spain, raising crucial doubts on the dominant forms of water governance in the region.",

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note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank Natalia Buritic{\'a} for preparing the map of Figure 1 in this article and to Juan Camilo Afanador for his meaningful reading and advice. The authors have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) grant agreement No. 861509 – NEWAVE. Funding Information: The authors have received funding from the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk{\l}odowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) grant agreement No. 861509 – NEWAVE. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Author(s)",

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AU - Esteve-Selma, Miguel Angel

AU - Dell'Angelo, Jampel

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank Natalia Buriticá for preparing the map of Figure 1 in this article and to Juan Camilo Afanador for his meaningful reading and advice. The authors have received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) grant agreement No. 861509 – NEWAVE. Funding Information: The authors have received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) Innovative Training Network (ITN) grant agreement No. 861509 – NEWAVE. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)

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N2 - The Segura River basin in South-East Spain is home to aquatic and dry-land ecosystems of regional significance. Pressurised, over the course of the last five decades, by interests of agricultural origin, the basin is caught up in a persistent water crisis traversed by conflict and socio-ecological deterioration. This article presents a socio-ecological-system characterisation of the Segura River basin with a focus on the interactions between institutional performance and expectations on irrigation water supply. The contribution of this research is twofold: first, it provides a model that develops a conceptual articulation of a socio-ecological framework in the idiom of Systems Dynamics; second, it generates (both numerical and qualitative) policy-relevant insights into the basin's crisis, in a way that fully reflects its complexity. Our results indicate that ∼333.100 ha of drylands and agro-natural landscapes were lost to agriculture, and that groundwater overexploitation reached ∼500 Hm3 within the 1960-2021 modelling horizon. Our work accurately models the pervasive impacts of intensive agriculture expansion in the Segura basin and portrays some of the socio-ecological consequences of the hydraulic paradigm in Spain, raising crucial doubts on the dominant forms of water governance in the region.

AB - The Segura River basin in South-East Spain is home to aquatic and dry-land ecosystems of regional significance. Pressurised, over the course of the last five decades, by interests of agricultural origin, the basin is caught up in a persistent water crisis traversed by conflict and socio-ecological deterioration. This article presents a socio-ecological-system characterisation of the Segura River basin with a focus on the interactions between institutional performance and expectations on irrigation water supply. The contribution of this research is twofold: first, it provides a model that develops a conceptual articulation of a socio-ecological framework in the idiom of Systems Dynamics; second, it generates (both numerical and qualitative) policy-relevant insights into the basin's crisis, in a way that fully reflects its complexity. Our results indicate that ∼333.100 ha of drylands and agro-natural landscapes were lost to agriculture, and that groundwater overexploitation reached ∼500 Hm3 within the 1960-2021 modelling horizon. Our work accurately models the pervasive impacts of intensive agriculture expansion in the Segura basin and portrays some of the socio-ecological consequences of the hydraulic paradigm in Spain, raising crucial doubts on the dominant forms of water governance in the region.

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ER -

A socio-ecological model of the Segura River basin, Spain

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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