Abstract
For decades, the Province of Alicante, located in the Southeast of Spain, has experienced important economic development associated with groundwater exploitation. The scarcity of superficial resources and irregular distribution in the time and space of rainfall, typical of the Mediterranean environment, together with the extensive limestone outcrops, have made groundwater a key resource for the area. However, insufficient knowledge about aquifers, especially the lack of precise recharge estimates, hinders regional water management. This study establishes updated recharge estimates and water budgets for the 200 aquifers found in Alicante, using readily usable methodologies and available data. These are soil water budget models, groundwater flow models, water table fluctuation methods, and spring flow analyses. The results show low mean annual values of recharge from precipitation (69 mm/year and a coefficient of 12%) and two main differentiated domains. The first one, in the northeast of the province, under more humid climatic conditions with larger carbonate aquifer systems, has higher recharge coefficients, ranging from 14% to 24%, and greater resources. For the rest of the province, where aquifers are smaller and annual averages of rainfall range between 250 and 400 mm, average recharge rates are low (9–12%).
Highlights
The search for new water resources to supply the demands of a growing global population has significantly increased during the last few decades [1,2]
This paper presents an example of assessment of recharge for the Province of Alicante (Spain), one of the most arid regions in Europe, with high demographic pressure, that allows us to establish accurate mean water balances for the aquifers and to quantify overexploitation as a step to developing sustainable water management policies
The most trustworthy results probably come from coupling a recharge model with a groundwater model, calibrated with piezometric evolutions, as all the elements of balance have to be taken into account and are consistent among them
Summary
The search for new water resources to supply the demands of a growing global population has significantly increased during the last few decades [1,2]. The bonanza of the climate, especially favorable for intensive agriculture, has allowed the transformation from traditional nonirrigated crops to high-productivity irrigated crops. This was linked to an important change in landscape due to the increase of cropland. As a coastal area with a benign climate, Alicante has become one of the main sun-and-beach destinations of Spain, which implies welcoming a high number of visitors, during summer. Touristic activity implies an increment in urban water supply in the coastal areas, which, in some locations, doubles the usual demand
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