Intensive Use Of Groundwater Research Articles

Dynamic Bayesian Networks as a Decision Support tool for assessing Climate Change impacts on highly stressed groundwater systems

Summary Bayesian Networks (BNs) are powerful tools for assessing and predicting consequences of water management scenarios and uncertain drivers like climate change, integrating available scientific knowledge with the interests of the multiple stakeholders. However, among their major limitations, the non-transient treatment of the cause-effect relationship stands out. A Decision Support System (DSS) based on Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBNs) is proposed here aimed to palliate that limitation through time slicing technique. The DSS comprises several classes (Object-Oriented BN networks), especially designed for future 5 years length time steps (time slices), covering a total control period of 30 years (2070–2100). The DSS has been developed for assessing impacts generated by different Climate Change (CC) scenarios (generated from several Regional Climatic Models (RCMs) under two emission scenarios, A1B and A2) in an aquifer system (Serral-Salinas) affected by intensive groundwater use over the last 30 years. A calibrated continuous water balance model was used to generate hydrological CC scenarios, and then a groundwater flow model (MODFLOW) was employed in order to analyze the aquifer behavior under CC conditions. Results obtained from both models were used as input for the DSS, considering rainfall, aquifer recharge, variation of piezometric levels and temporal evolution of aquifer storage as the main hydrological components of the aquifer system. Results show the evolution of the aquifer storage for each future time step under different climate change conditions and under controlled water management interventions. This type of applications would allow establishing potential adaptation strategies for aquifer systems as the CC comes into effect.

A Framework for the Analysis of Governance Structures Applying to Groundwater Resources and the Requirements for the Sustainable Management of Associated Ecosystem Services

The competing demands placed on groundwater for socio-economic and for ecological benefits, and the resultant tradeoffs, represent a major challenge for the management arena. The governance of groundwater resources and the sustainable management of associated ecosystem services must take into consideration human and biophysical characteristics as intertwined systems. Frameworks and analytical tools are required to help understand complex governance regimes, and the linkages between management and the corresponding effects on ecosystem services. Presented in this paper is a framework for the analysis of groundwater governance based on the adaptive management approach and the ecosystem services concept. Governance can be analyzed on the basis of certain characteristics. One characteristic of a governance regime assumed to be crucial for adaptive and sustainable management is vertical integration, which refers to the connectedness of different administrative levels, including the involvement of non-governmental stakeholders in decision-making and planning processes. The framework was applied in the Upper Guadiana Basin in Spain, where the intensive use of groundwater has led to significant conflicts between farmers, authorities and environmental conservation groups. The analysis showed that conflicts arose from a lack of vertical integration; e.g., one-way communication between official authorities and the exclusion of local stakeholders during planning processes. The framework is deemed to be a strong analytical tool as it provides a basis for organized and context-specific case study assessment and renders complex groundwater management more transparent and comprehensible. The framework will be further applied and enhanced for application in international case studies.

Integrated Assessment of the European WFD Implementation in Extremely Overexploited Aquifers Through Participatory Modelling

Participatory methods provide an increasingly accepted path to integrated water assessment. This research describes an interdisciplinary exercise of scenario design and modelling, which provides a methodology to couple hard science numerical modelling approaches with the involvement of key water actors and socioeconomic issues. A decision support system based on probabilistic methods (Bayesian networks) is the tool chosen for dealing with the interdisciplinary issues involved in this aquifer. Given the long-standing conflicts in the area, modelling work largely focuses on carrying out an impact assessment produced by different scenarios established under the light of the mandatory objectives established by the European Union Water Framework Directive. This methodology is applied to a semi-arid aquifer located in SE Spain (Serral-Salinas) that represents an extreme case of intensive groundwater use. Irrigation has been a catalyst for welfare in the area for the past 40 years, despite the resulting large groundwater drawdown and continuous rise of groundwater pumping energy costs. Modelling results suggest that only a drastic change in the abstraction regime can produce a solution to long term sustainability of the aquifers. In addition, the impact assessment advises that such objectives are unlikely to be met due to the high economic costs of this action.

Groundwater Rights in Mexican Agriculture: Spatial Distribution and Demographic Determinants*

Groundwater use intensity and aquifer depletion increase from south to north with decreasing rainfall and increasing economic activity in Mexico. To heighten scholarly understanding and offer new insights that strengthen policy responses to aquifer depletion, we analyze the spatial distribution of agricultural groundwater use from irrigation well titles in 2,429 municipalities and its relation to agricultural surface water and population employed in agriculture. Exploratory spatial data analysis reveals spatial dependence among all three variables implying that policy initiatives to address intensive groundwater use must be targeted at clusters of aquifers and municipalities.

Vulnerability of deep groundwater in the Bengal Aquifer System to contamination by arsenic

Arsenic levels in shallow groundwater in the Bengal Basin exceed thresholds for safe drinking water. Groundwater modelling indicates that deep wells that reach safe water below 150 m could remain safe for centuries if used for domestic water only, whereas the intensive use of deep groundwater for irrigation could contaminate this resource within decades. Shallow groundwater, the primary water source in the Bengal Basin, contains up to 100 times the World Health Organization (WHO) drinking-water guideline of 10 μg l−1 arsenic (As), threatening the health of 70 million people. Groundwater from a depth greater than 150 m, which almost uniformly meets the WHO guideline, has become the preferred alternative source. The vulnerability of deep wells to contamination by As is governed by the geometry of induced groundwater flow paths and the geochemical conditions encountered between the shallow and deep regions of the aquifer. Stratification of flow separates deep groundwater from shallow sources of As in some areas. Oxidized sediments also protect deep groundwater through the ability of ferric oxyhydroxides to adsorb As. Basin-scale groundwater flow modelling suggests that, over large regions, deep hand-pumped wells for domestic supply may be secure against As invasion for hundreds of years. By contrast, widespread deep irrigation pumping might effectively eliminate deep groundwater as an As-free resource within decades. Finer-scale models, incorporating spatial heterogeneity, are needed to investigate the security of deep municipal abstraction at specific urban locations.

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

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.

Role of Inequality and Inequity in the Occurrence and Consequences of Chronic Arsenicosis in India and Policy Implications

Abstract More than 10 million people living in India face health risks from arsenic-contaminated groundwater. Arsenic originated naturally in the earth's crust in the Himalayan region and was deposited in aquifers for thousands of years. Arsenic exposure is taking place due to intensive use of groundwater in irrigation and household use (drinking and cooking). Although a better understanding of the problem has been arrived at, and a vast knowledge database is available, there has been no systematic effort to address the wider problem or to adopt truly equitable solutions. The author conducted the study in some arsenic-affected villages in West Bengal, the most severely affected state in India, and analyzed the existing research and policy documents in order to examine the extent of the suffering of the people and to explore the possible sustainable solutions appropriate in the local context. The study has established the role of socioeconomic disparities, governance, policy, and their complex relationship...

Wetland Restoration in the Mancha Occidental Aquifer, Spain: A Critical Perspective on Water, Agricultural, and Environmental Policies

Abstract Conflicts between intensive groundwater use and wetland conservation are widespread throughout arid and semiarid regions worldwide. These have become more significant wherever there has been a synchronism between pumping‐based human development and the awakening of an environmental awareness in society. The Mancha Occidental aquifer provides an example of such an occurrence, which has given rise to noteworthy social conflicts. This paper presents a cross‐policy analysis for wetland restoration measures, establishing the main reasons why funding‐intensive agricultural, environmental, and water policies have only attained marginal success in recovering the area’s aquatic ecosystems.

Vulnerability assessment of groundwater resources: A modelling-based approach to the Mancha Occidental aquifer, Spain

The semiarid Mancha Occidental aquifer represents a paradigmatic case of intensive groundwater use for agriculture. Irrigation has proven a catalyst for welfare in the area over the last three decades, if at a significant environmental cost and while raising concerns as to its mid-term sustainability. This paper describes an interdisciplinary exercise of scenario design and modelling, providing a methodology to couple hard-science numerical modelling approaches with the involvement of key water actors. Given the long-standing conflicts in the area, modelling work largely focuses on carrying out a vulnerability assessment rather than on trying to find solutions. The system's most resilient aspects and its drivers for change are identified, while their potential implications for aquifer sustainability are assessed under the light of the mandatory objectives established by the European Union Water Framework Directive for all Member States. Whereas modelling results imply that such objectives are unlikely to be met, a vulnerability assessment suggests that even adverse scenario pumping patterns could be sustained in the mid- to long-term (two to four decades).

Bayesian belief networks as a tool for participatory integrated assessment and adaptive groundwater management: the Upper Guadiana Basin, Spain

Las Tablas de Daimiel, together with other wetlands in La Mancha, Spain, situated in the Upper Guadiana Basin (Fig. 1), has been catalogued as a Biosphere Reserve Area since 1981 as part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere programme. Between the mid-1970s and late 1980s, over 150 000 hectares of new irrigation areas were established, mainly as a result of private initiative. The average recharge rate of groundwater in the western La Mancha aquifer in the Upper Guadiana Basin is estimated to be between 200 and 500 million m3 per year, in dry and wet years respectively. Recharge also depends on the depth of the water table (Martínez-Cortina & Cruces 2003). Abstraction reached 600 million m3 per year by the end of the 1980s. Up to this time a total of 3000–5000 million m3 of the Upper Guadiana Basin aquifer’s water reserves was withdrawn (Bromley et al. 2000; Lopéz-Geta et al. 2006). The intensive use of groundwater has been a main factor for the improvement of the social and economic situation in this region, with a population of about half a million people, and where the agricultural sector is very important (Llamas et al. 2006). Water-table drawdown due to the intensive abstraction of groundwater for irrigation has caused severe negative impacts on wetlands, streams and rivers, and has resulted in a lowering of groundwater levels by up to 50 m. The main conflicts in the area are between farmers and conservationists, between central, regional and local government water agencies, and between small farmers and big farmers. The conflicts began about three decades ago (Llamas 1988) and have not yet been settled. In 2001 the Spanish Parliament asked the Government to present a hydrological plan for the Upper Guadiana Basin within one year. More than 20 draft proposals have been presented, the last one in 2006 with a budget of almost four billion Euros. This proposal has been met with strong opposition from most farmer lobbies. The Guadiana Basin is one of seven trans-boundary case studies of the EU NeWater research project (New Approaches for Adaptive Water Management under Uncertainty). The principal water-management issues in the project are addressed by adaptive and integrated water-resource manage ment. This includes uncertainty and risk mitigation, governance, crosssectoral integration, scale analysis, information management, stakeholder participation, financial aspects, system resilience and vulnerability. One work block in the NeWater project has the task of translating research outputs into tools for practitioners and end-users. As part of this effort, Bayesian belief networks (Bns) were selected as one possible tool to be developed as an aid to stakeholder participation in integrated assessment of gaps, being a suitable tool for dialogue in order to identify gaps in water-resource management functions, gaps to meet the goals of the EU Water Framework Directive and to analyse management potentials and constraints. The purpose of this paper is to describe the testing of Bns as a tool for participatory integrated assessment and adaptive and integrated water-resource management in the Upper Guadiana Basin.

Ground Water Ethics

In 1949, Aldo Leopold’s son, Luna, published his father’s book A Sand County Almanac (Oxford University Press, New York) following Aldo’s untimely death the preceding year. The final section of the book introduces “The Land Ethic,” a concept that became the cornerstone of environmental ethics. “The Land Ethic” extends the concept of community to include not only humans but also animals and plants as well as the inanimate components of the environment such as soil, rocks, and water. Leopold collectively refers to animals, plants, soil, rocks, and water as “land” and states that the land has a “right to continued existence in a natural state” in at least some places. In ground water management, we talk about ethical use of water and define limits to use with concepts such as safe yield and sustainability. But even under the most enlightened circumstances, ground water management is pursued with a human-centric viewpoint. For example, we might favor sustainable development of ground water to preserve the resource for future generations of humans and to avoid inconvenient adverse effects such as land subsidence, sea water intrusion, degradation of water quality, or esthetically unpleasant effects such as loss of springs and habitat for animals and plants that give us pleasure. Sustainable use is also linked to economics. However, in the philosophical context used by Leopold, an ethic places “a limitation on freedom of action in the struggle for existence.” Leopold gave this advice: “Examine each question in terms of what is ethically and esthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” If strictly followed, this directive would place severe limitations on decision making in many ground water management scenarios. In fact, the whole ground water industry runs counter to the concept of ethics, as defined by Leopold, since we aim to develop ground water resources for beneficial use by humans. For example, the thesis in Water and Ethics: Use of Groundwater (Lamas 2004, New York: UNESCO, p. 33) is that intensive use of ground water is beneficial and ethical if development is “well designed and controlled.” Aldo Leopold, like Henry Thoreau, exhibited tendencies toward mysticism. Leopold talked about “goose music” and Thoreau wondered who might hear the fishes when they cry. While Leopold probably did not believe that inanimate objects such as rocks and water have spirits (as in Shinto and the beliefs of Native Americans), he certainly recognized a vital force in nature (Nash, R., 1977, Do rocks have rights? The Center Magazine, November/December: 2–12). Most people acknowledge that respect for oneself, for family, for “tribe,” for race or ethnic heritage, and for nation imposes limitations on personal freedom; in civilized societies, codified bodies of laws enforce these limitations. Furthermore, most people will recognize that respect for life, with accompanying limitations on freedom, ought to be extended to all humankind and could be extended at least to animals. On the other hand, if humans are to survive and thrive, we must necessarily consume plants, if not animals, and utilize water. Yet, Leopold believed that ethics might eventually evolve to the stage where humans would recognize “the land” (i.e., plants, animals, soil, rocks, and water) as part of our community. Extending this idea even further, and speaking philosophically, humans can impart “rights” to inanimate objects, rights that they obviously cannot claim for themselves (Nash 1977). Given the realities of the global struggle for existence, it is unrealistic at this point in time to advocate water resources management based solely on a ground water ethic derived from Leopold’s Land Ethic. Leopold was enough of a realist to appreciate “The Land Ethic” was a concept before its time, and he compromised by recommending that ethics be considered along with economics and esthetics. Nevertheless, today we preserve places where ground water exists in a natural state, even if our motivation is based in esthetics. For example, spectacular displays of ground water discharge (geysers) are protected in Yellowstone National Park, and in many places even minor springs are protected locally. Maybe in another 100 years, with additional technological and engineering advances, our notion of ethics will have evolved so that a true ground water ethic, as envisioned by Leopold, will emerge in some form as a basis for making management decisions.

Political Economy of Groundwater Exploitation: The Israeli Case

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes For examples and specifications of such processes, see Sophocleous (2003 Sophocleous M 2003 Environmental implications of intensive groundwater use with special regards to streams and wetlands Llaman R Custudio E Intensive Use of Groundwater: Challenges and Opportunities 93 112 Lisse A. A. Balkema [Google Scholar]) and Koussis et al. (2003 Koussis AD Kontronarou A Destouni G Prieto C 2003 Intensive groundwater development in coastal zones and small islands Llaman R Custudio E Intensive Use of Groundwater: Challenges and Opportunities 133 155 Lisse A. A. Balkema [Google Scholar]). A discussion of the various forms of property rights is beyond the scope of this paper. For reviews of the definitions of different forms of property rights and their functioning, see Bromley (1991 Bromley D 1991 Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy Oxford Blackwell [Google Scholar]) and Berkes (1996 Berkes F 1996 Social systems, ecological systems and property rights Hanna S Folke C Maler K-G Rights to Nature: Ecological, Economic, Cultural and political Principles of Institutions for the Environment 87 107 New York & London W.W. (Norton & Co. [Google Scholar]). One way to enhance efficiency under such a system is to allow trading in rights (Garrido & Livingston, 2003 Garrido A Livingston ML 2003 Economic and financial perspectives on intensive groundwater use Llaman R Custudio E Intensive Use of Groundwater: Challenges and Opportunities 207 225 Lisse A. A. Balkema [Google Scholar]). But trading in water rights has been quite limited, and in some cases it can lead to excessive abstractions from aquifers, if the externalities of pumpage are not internalized in the market (Winpenny, 1994). On the importance of such entrepreneurship and of ‘policy windows’ in setting agendas and implementing policies, as well as for definitions of these terms, see Kingdon (1984 Kingdon J 1984 Agendas, Alternatives and Public Policies New York HarperCollins [Google Scholar]). For expositions on the reasons that policy outcomes tend to favour interest groups, and particularly small cohesive ones, see Grossman & Helpman (1996 Grossman, GM and Helpman, E. 1996. Electoral competition and special interest politics. Review of Economic Studies, 63: 265–286. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), Coate & Morris (1995 Coate, S and Morris, S. 1995. On the form of transfers to special interests. Journal of Political Economy, 103: 1210–1235. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and Lohmann (1998 Lohmann, S. 1998. An information rationale for the power of special interests. American Political Science Review, 92: 809–827. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). For the theoretical substantiation of this statement, see Lohmann (1998 Lohmann, S. 1998. An information rationale for the power of special interests. American Political Science Review, 92: 809–827. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). For a more comprehensive account of water resource management in Israel, see Arlosoroff (2001 Arlosoroff S 2001 Water resource management in Israel Feitelson E Haddad M Management of Shared Groundwater Resources: The Israeli–Palestinian Case with an International Perspective 57 74 Dordrecht Kluwer [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). Most of this responsibility, though not for pricing, was shifted in 1996 to the newly formed Ministry of National Infrastructure. The survey was administered by mail and had a response rate of slightly over 50%. This impasse was overcome for wastewater recycling in 1993 when planners and environmentalists incorporated wastewater treatment as a precondition for residential development in the national plan for immigration absorption and development, thereby forcing housing interests to finance wastewater recycling. This flexibility is available in Israel as all main reservoirs are interconnected via the national Water Carrier. This change in position has been explained in a theoretical political economy model, largely structured on the Israeli case, by Rausser & Zusman (1991 Rausser G Zusman P 1991 Organizational failure and the political economy of water resource management Dinar A Zilberman D The Economics and Management of Water And Drainage in Agriculture 735 758 Boston, MA Kluwer [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). These will also include, in addition to farmers, urban users, industry, the Nature and Parks authority, the tourism health and environmental ministries, as well as environmental NGOs.

Intensive Groundwater Use: Silent Revolution and Potential Source of Social Conflicts

Many papers, including a recent editorial of this journal Stakhiv 2003 , have advocated the need for a paradigm shift toward adaptive, integrated water resources management as a means to attain a rationalization in water use. There is, however, one significant element of water policy that has received less attention by most experts and water decision-makers: intensive groundwater use for irrigation in arid and semiarid regions more significantly in developing countries . This editorial provides an overview of this phenomenon and its main pros and cons, aiming to contribute to the current debate over adaptive integrated water resources management. Assessing the implications might not only shed some new light upon some pervasive world water visions, but also help to avoid or mitigate potential social conflicts. Groundwater development has for a long time provided drinking water to urban and rural populations of developed and developing countries. Currently, groundwater is estimated to provide about 50% of the world’s drinking-water supplies United Nations 2003 p. 78 . Moreover, groundwater is arguably the cheapest and fastest way to achieve the United Nations Millennium Declaration goal of halving the number of people worldwide without affordable drinking water and/or malnourished by 2015 Llamas and Martinez Cortina 2002 . In addition, groundwater abstraction by simplified mechanisms, such as the treadle pump, together with cheap drip irrigation systems, also constitutes a plausible alternative for developing countries to overcome the poverty threshold one dollar/person and day per capita income Polak 2004 . While the human and political relevance of these figures is obvious, it cannot be overlooked that urban and rural domestic supply for human consumption amounts to less than 15% of global water use. Thus, this editorial is concerned solely with irrigation, which is generally acknowledged to be about 70% of the world’s freshwater withdrawal United Nations 2003 . Note that this percentage might increase to about 90% if consumptive uses were considered.

Intensive use of ground water and sustainability

Intensive use of ground water and sustainability

Intensive groundwater use: a silent revolution that cannot be ignored

Over the last decades, agriculture in arid and semi-arid countries has experienced a true "silent revolution" of intensive groundwater use. Millions of independent farmers worldwide have chosen to become increasingly dependent on the reliability of groundwater resources, and as a result their countries have reaped abundant social and economic benefits. Data from several countries shows that groundwater irrigation presents a much greater efficiency, than surface water irrigation systems, thus contributing to fulfil the motto of "more crops and jobs per drop". If this situation is confirmed globally, the usual world water visions have to be reviewed. However, the "silent revolution" has been carried out with scarce control on the part of governmental water agencies, and thus a series of unwanted effects have developed in certain places. While these by no means justify the pervasive "hydromyths" and obsolete paradigms that voice the frailty of groundwater, appropriate management of groundwater resources remains a worldwide challenge. This paper provides an overview of these issues, and concludes with the necessity there is to educate all levels of society on the importance of groundwater and to create bottom-up user associations to manage aquifers as common pool resources.

The silent revolution of intensive ground water use: Pros and cons

In the 1970s, the word ‘‘hydroschizophrenia’’ was used to describe the attitude of decision makers, who played down the role of ground water relative to surface water resources. More than 30 years later, this situation has not changed. Take as an example the Ministerial Declaration signed by more than 100 ‘‘Water Ministers’’ at the Third World Water Forum (Kyoto, March 2003) in which ground water is not even mentioned. While ignorance or unethical attitudes on the part of governmental water agencies have sometimes resulted in the neglect of ground water resources, a spectacular increase in the use of ground water for irrigation has taken place in the past decades, mainly in arid and semiarid countries. This development has occurred through the personal initiative of millions of farmers in pursuit of the socioeconomic benefits ground water can trigger. In that sense, intensive ground water use has been a kind of ‘‘silent revolution.’’ The total direct cost of abstracting ground water for irrigation is, in most cases, only a small fraction of the economic value of the crops obtained. Furthermore, advances in hydrogeology and well-drilling techniques as well as the invention of the submersible pump have significantly contributed to reduced costs of ground water abstraction. Even if the price of ground water is usually higher than that of surface water (which is often heavily subsidized), many farmers still prefer ground water because it tends to be easier to obtain. Besides, ground water also provides a valuable backup resource when surface water cannot be used, e.g., due to drought. Another important benefit of ground water use is a positive effect on the social transition of many farming families. Low pumping costs, and mainly security against drought, have allowed poor farmers to progress into a middle-class status and enabled them to provide a better education for their children. Thus, after one generation, their children are trained as teachers and technicians, while those who continue as farmers have access to a better technology and grow cash crops that demand less water and result in a higher economic revenue. Uncontrolled abstraction has sometimes led to problems; the most important of which is usually degradation of ground water quality. However, this problem is usually related to changes in land use rather than to ground water withdrawals per se. Other associated problems are excessive drawdown of ground water levels, land subsidence, reduction of springflow and base flow, and the degradation of ground water–dependent ecosystems. Nevertheless, there are practically no documented cases where intensive ground water abstraction from medium or large aquifers has caused serious social or economic disturbances like those caused by soil waterlogging and salinization, or the serious social conflicts in relation to people displaced or ousted by the construction of large dams. Social progress due to ground water development has in turn strengthened the capacity of farmers to form powerful lobbies with political clout, although the lobbies may not be concerned with ground water sustainability but with the short-term benefits. For instance, in India, electric energy necessary for pumping is heavily subsidized. The immediate consequence is that the technical irrigation efficiency in the field is lower than in places like Spain, where the subsidies for irrigation energy are minimal. In Spain, farmers’ lobbies convinced the government that problems related to depleted aquifers need to be solved by importing surface water from other basins. Several demonstrations (over 300,000 participants) have taken place both for and against the transfer. In order to provide a solution to these problems and to bridge the gap between farmers and governmental agencies, the following suggestions, inspired by the Valencia Declaration (Valencia, Spain, December, 10–14, 2002; published in Selected Papers on Intensive Use of Groundwater, Sahuquillo et al., eds., 2004, Balkema Publishing Co., The 1 Netherlands, p. 399–400) are suggested:

Groundwater socio-ecology and governance: a review of institutions and policies in selected countries

Groundwater is crucial for the livelihoods and food security of millions of people, and yet, knowledge formation in the field of groundwater has remained asymmetrical. While, scientific knowledge in the discipline (hydrology and hydrogeology) has advanced remarkably, relatively little is known about the socio-economic impacts and institutions that govern groundwater use. This paper therefore has two objectives. The first is to provide a balanced view of the plus and the down side of groundwater use, especially in agriculture. In doing so, examples are drawn from countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Spain and Mexico—all of which make very intensive use of groundwater. Second, institutions and policies that influence groundwater use are analyzed in order to understand how groundwater is governed in these countries and whether successful models of governance could be replicated elsewhere. Finally, the authors argue that there is a need for a paradigm shift in the way groundwater is presently perceived and managed—from management to governance mode. In this attempt, a number of instruments such as direct regulation, indirect policy levers, livelihood adaptation and people’s participation will have to be deployed simultaneously in a quest for better governance.

Intensive use of groundwater: challenges & opportunities

Intensive use of groundwater: challenges & opportunities

The Role of Groundwater in Spain's Water Policy

Groundwater use in Spain has increased dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century. Today, groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for almost 13 million people. It is also helping transform irrigated agriculture. Groundwater irrigation accounts for more than 50 percent of the total economic value of irrigated agricultural production in Spain, while it only consumes about 20 percent of the total volume of water. However, intensive groundwater use has also resulted in serious environmental problems in some areas; in particular, negative impacts to groundwater dependant ecosystems and problems in coastal aquifers due to saltwater intrusion. In spite of its socioeconomic and environmental significance, groundwater has not been a significant part of Spanish water policy. In order to maintain the benefits derived from groundwater use and to avoid or mitigate the negative impacts, some changes are necessary. First, the structure, operation, and goals of Basin Management Agencies need to be transformed to better reflect new social priorities, economic realities, and environmental goals. Second, it is imperative to finally resolve the chaotic situation of groundwater use rights in Spain. Finally, it is necessary to implement an effective user participation system for groundwater management through the promotion and consolidation of groundwater users associations.

Groundwater abstraction and contamination in Lithuania as geoindicators of environmental change

Groundwater abstraction not only affects subsurface water, but also causes changes in the hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. There are certain symptoms of these environmental changes that might be designated as geoindicators. Geoindicators related to groundwater abstraction and contamination in Lithuania have been classified into three groups related to: (1) the decline/rise of groundwater levels, (2) the deterioration of groundwater quality, and (3) the intensification of water-rock interaction. On the basis of hydrogeological and hydrological investigations carried out over many years, different environmental impacts of intensive groundwater use are demonstrated. The most important among them are the formation of depression cones, intensification of groundwater pollution, saltwater encroachment, and the intensification of karst.