Abstract
Since the middle of the 20th century, irrigation in the southeast of Spain has displayed significant productive growth based on the intensive use of the scarce water resources in the area and the contribution of river flows from the hydrographic basin of the Tagus River to the hydrographic basin of the Segura River. Despite high levels of efficiency in the water use from the new irrigation systems, the water deficit has only intensified in recent years. The most dynamically irrigated areas (Campo de Cartagena, Valle del Guadalentín, Vega Alta del Segura and the southern coast of the Region of Murcia), were faced with a complex and trying future, resulting in numerous companies (agribusinesses) relocating to lease and acquire land in the northwest of Murcia to develop their intensive crops. The general objective of this article lies in the analysis of widespread landscape dynamics, and of agricultural dynamics in particular, in the rural environment of the northwest Region of Murcia (Spain). For this, an exhaustive analysis of the land cover and use transformations is carried out for the periods of time 1990–2000–2012–2018. The data studied come from the Corine Land Cover (CLC) project, carried out by the European Environment Agency (EEA). These spatial data are treated with geographical information systems (GISs) and represented by statistical and cartographic analyses and cross-tabulation matrices that indicate the dynamics of changes, loss and land gain. As the main result, we find that the areas occupied by new intensive irrigation on old rainfed farmland in the northwest Region of Murcia have increased in the last 30 years. Traditional irrigation is disappearing, and the environmental consequences (overexploitation of aquifers and decreased flows from natural sources), among others, are dire.
Highlights
Agriculture is the sector that consumes the most water and at the same time is the most affected by the scarcity of water in many places; it represents 70.0% of the world’s freshwater withdrawals and more than 90.0% of its consumption [1,2]
This study focuses, in essence, on analyzing the recent evolution of coverage and land use in the northwest of the Region of Murcia during the indicated period, the transitions and spatial dynamics between the coverage and land use, and the evolution of temporary irrigation crops
The detail and reliability achieved by spatial data, generated through satellite images, make it possible to carry out analyses of territorial and landscape dynamics with a very high degree of precision [65]
Summary
Agriculture is the sector that consumes the most water and at the same time is the most affected by the scarcity of water in many places; it represents 70.0% of the world’s freshwater withdrawals and more than 90.0% of its consumption [1,2]. According to United Nations forecasts, by 2030, freshwater resources will decrease by 40.0% [4]. This fact, together with the increase in the world population, could generate a global water crisis. In this way, policies must be directed towards the sustainability of agricultural activities and the reduction in water consumption by crops [5].
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