Anthropization of groundwater resources in the Mediterranean region: processes and challenges

Leduc, Christian; Pulido−Bosch, A.; Rémini, Boualem

doi:10.1007/s10040-017-1572-6

Cited by 75 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 115 publications

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“…Explanations may lie in the fact that both the Treasure Valley and Spanish sites are characterized by water use to fuel industrial-scale food production, whereas uses in the mountainous, rural Portneuf Valley include proportionately more irrigation of pasturelands, and concerns in the similarly mountainous and rural Kiamichi Basin are centered on diversions for use by growing cities. It is also noteworthy that concerns about water quality were relatively low across all four sites, despite well-documented water quality issues in all four, ranging from thermal alteration in the Kiamichi (Galbraith and Vaughn 2011) to sediment and nutrient pollution in the Treasure and Portneuf Valleys (Hopkins et al 2011, Han et al 2017, and aquifer contamination in Spain (Leduc et al 2017). Other investigators have found that respondents in waterscarce regions were commonly more concerned with water quantity than quality, but that within developed nations like the USA and Spain, variation in social characteristics of respondents may mediate the extent of concerns regarding water quality (e.g., Larson et al 2016, Flint et al 2017.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Social-ecological systems influence ecosystem service perception: a Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) analysis

Quintas-Soriano¹,

Brandt²,

Running³

et al. 2018

E&S

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Facing the challenges of environmental and social changes, sustainable management of ecosystem services is a worldwide priority. The Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) approach provides a unique opportunity for promoting transdisciplinary place-based comparative research for social-ecological systems (SES) management. As part of the PECS-sponsored WaterSES project, we used four place-based SES research sites to analyze patterns in perceptions of ecosystem services. Our data come from about 1,500 face-to-face surveys conducted in southern Spain, the south-central Great Plains of Oklahoma (USA), and the Portneuf and Treasure Valleys, Idaho (USA). Specifically, this study aimed to (1) describe and compare perceptions of ecosystem services within and across SES sites, (2) explore how perceptions of ecosystem services vary among local respondents and by sociodemographic factors, and (3) evaluate the overall relationship between place-based SES contexts and ecosystem service perceptions. Our results revealed that cultural ecosystem services were the most highly mentioned among those surveyed across all four sites. However, we found differences in how ecosystem services were perceived among the four SES contexts. For instance, both, social (e.g., gender, education) and local ecological (e.g., land use and climate) characteristics play roles in influencing people's perceptions of which services are important. Overall, our findings suggest the relationship between people's perceptions of ecosystem services and their socialenvironmental context is complex, which highlights the value of the PECS approach for crafting more effective and inclusive landscape management strategies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Social-ecological systems influence ecosystem service perception: a Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) analysis

Quintas-Soriano¹,

Brandt²,

Running³

et al. 2018

E&S

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“…In North Africa, these reservoirs are already affected by dam silting, evaporation losses (Boudjadja et al 2003;Remini et al 2009), and in some cases deep infiltration losses through the reservoir bed into the aquifers (Leduc et al 2007). Several studies associate a future decrease in groundwater recharge with the reduction in surface runoff (Benabdallah et al 2018;Bouchaou et al 2011;Meddi and Boucefiane 2013); since in semiarid environments, focused infiltration from rivers is the main groundwater recharge process (Leduc et al 2017). However, until now, North African aquifers have been affected much more by human activities than by climate variability (Leduc et al 2017;Lezzaik and Milewski 2018).…”

Section: Impact Of Climate Change On Water Resourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change vulnerability, water resources and social implications in North Africa

et al. 2020

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North Africa is considered a climate change hot spot. Existing studies either focus on the physical aspects of climate change or discuss the social ones. The present article aims to address this divide by assessing and comparing the climate change vulnerability of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia and linking it to its social implications. The vulnerability assessment focuses on climate change exposure, water resources, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The results suggest that all countries are exposed to strong temperature increases and a high drought risk under climate change. Algeria is most vulnerable to climate change, mainly due to the country's high sensitivity. Across North Africa, the combination of climate change and strong population growth is very likely to further aggravate the already scarce water situation. The so-called Arab Spring has shown that social unrest is partly caused by unmet basic needs of the population for food and water. Thus, climate change may become an indirect driver of social instability in North Africa. To mitigate the impact of climate change, it is important to reduce economic and livelihood dependence on rain-fed agriculture, strengthen sustainable land use practices, and increase the adaptive capacity. Further, increased regional cooperation and sub-national vulnerability assessments are needed.

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“…This increase in the irrigated production of vegetables attracted new actors including farming investors and young farmers, and generated new activities and new jobs (Dugué et al 2014). At the same time, in each area, groundwater pumping increased and accelerated water table declines (Leduc et al 2017). In the countries concerned, the state initiated and stimulated access to the confined aquifers through deep tube-wells, as the agricultural boom matched its objective to promote agricultural development (Petit et al 2017).…”

Section: Study Areas and Methodology Analytical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Today, groundwater is delivered through hundreds of thousands of mostly private tubewells to more than 500,000 farm holdings in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, irrigating more than 1.75 million ha and opening new irrigation frontiers every day . While major uncertainties remain about the hydrological impact of recent rapid agrarian changes, including groundwater pumping, hydrogeologists agree that the present development of groundwater-based agriculture is not sustainable (Leduc et al 2017). Yet, there are very few local initiatives to protect the aquifers, and states have remained Btolerant^because the agricultural boom promotes economic growth (Petit et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The key role of supply chain actors in groundwater irrigation development in North Africa

Lejars

Daoudi

Amichi³

2017

Hydrogeol J

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The role played by supply chain actors in the rapid development of groundwater-based irrigated agriculture is analyzed. Agricultural groundwater use has increased tremendously in the past 50 years, leading to the decline of water tables. Groundwater use has enabled intensification of existing farming systems and ensured economic growth. This “groundwater economy” has been growing rapidly due to the initiative of farmers and the involvement of a wide range of supply chain actors, including suppliers of equipment, inputs retailers, and distributors of irrigated agricultural products. In North Africa, the actors in irrigated production chains often operate at the margin of public policies and are usually described as “informal”, “unstructured”, and as participating in “groundwater anarchy”. This paper underlines the crucial role of supply chain actors in the development of groundwater irrigation, a role largely ignored by public policies and rarely studied. The analysis is based on three case studies in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, and focuses on the horticultural sub-sector, in particular on onions and tomatoes, which are irrigated high value crops. The study demonstrates that although supply chain actors are catalyzers of the expansion of groundwater irrigation, they could also become actors in adaptation to the declining water tables. Through their informal activities, they help reduce market risks, facilitate credit and access to subsidies, and disseminate innovation. The interest associated with making these actors visible to agricultural institutions is discussed, along with methods of getting them involved in the management of the resource on which they depend. (Résumé d'auteur

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Anthropization of groundwater resources in the Mediterranean region: processes and challenges

Cited by 75 publications

References 115 publications

Social-ecological systems influence ecosystem service perception: a Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) analysis

Social-ecological systems influence ecosystem service perception: a Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) analysis

Climate change vulnerability, water resources and social implications in North Africa

The key role of supply chain actors in groundwater irrigation development in North Africa

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