Effects of the Irrigation Modernization in Spain 2002–2015

Abstract

The present study analyzes the empirical evidence of impacts of water saving investments (irrigation modernization) in Spain in the period 1995-2015 resuting in XXX milllion ha modernized with a public subsidy around 50% and an average cost of 6000 EUR/ha. The negative effect of the measure have been an increase of energy consumptio and the water cost. The positive effects have been: increase in productivity of land, labour and water, generallized volumetric billing, substitution of commodity for high value crops, improved working conditions, improved water quality as return flows decrease chemical and salt exported trough retun flows and increased water supply guarantee. Consumption rebound effect has been hetereogeneous as the result of three factors: ex-post limitation to irrigated area expansion, ex.post water allocation cutback and ex-ante existence of deficit irrigation. Finally the positive effects mentioned seems to pay off the invetsment with negative outcome of increased energy and the obligation to maintain an strict policy controlling irrigated are expansion and reducing water rights to avoid a possible rebound effect.

Sensitivity of Agricultural Development to Water-Related Drivers: The Case of Andalusia (Spain)

“…Using CAPRI-Water enables building the analysis on a baseline calibrated to official projections (i.e., EU agricultural outlook) and accounting for climate-induced impacts on crop productivity in 2050 as provided by well-established crop models. Another advantage of this approach, highlighted as a limitation in other studies [48], is that the analysis of scenarios permits the differentiation of irrigated land expansion driven by increased water use efficiency from the inherent expansion of irrigated land over time. Nonetheless, the global nature and EU regional focus of the model lead to some limitations regarding the introduction of the water dimension mainly due to data constraints.…”

“…The implementation of more efficient irrigation systems has played an important role in the attainment of short-term water savings, but might trigger an increase in water demand in the medium term. The rebound effect arises from the growing interest in high value crops, such as fruits, due to guarantees of higher water supply and better quality of irrigation systems [48,49], and also from decoupled payments of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that encourage agricultural production adaptation to market [30,50,51]. Despite the efforts to promote water conservation, a recent report on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) shows that water abstraction remains high, with the water exploitation index (WEI+)-that relates water abstraction with its long-term annual average available renewable water resources-over the threshold of 40% due mainly to irrigation water withdrawn in some river basins, such as the Guadalquivir, the largest river basin in Andalusia [52].…”

Net-Metering and Self-Consumption Analysis for Direct PV Groundwater Pumping in Agriculture: A Spanish Case Study

“…Recently, Barbel affirms that in Spain, irrigated agriculture accounts for 20% of the total agricultural area, consumes 75% of total water resources, and generates 60% of the total agricultural production and 80% of agricultural exports [56]. Under these circumstances, Aquifer 23 located in Castilla La Mancha, Spain, is considered for the case study.…”

Sustainable agriculture and resource use under climate change: a multi-scale and cross-sectoral approach with a focus on Andalusia (Spain)

“…EU Agricultural outlook) and accounting for climate-induced impacts on crop productivity over the horizon 2050 as provided by well-established crop models. Another advantage of this approach, highlighted as a limitation in other studies (Berbel et al, 2019), is that the analysis of scenarios permits to differentiate factors that govern irrigated land expansion from projected trends. Additionally, CAPRI-Water accounts from market feedback, which has an important role to play in the agricultural sector under climate change , thought this is beyond the scope of this analysis as we focus on one single region to conduct the sensitivity analysis.…”

“…The implementation of more efficient irrigation systems has played an important role in the attainment of short-term water savings, but they might trigger increases in water demand in the medium term. The rebound effect arises from the growing interest in high value crops due to higher water supply guarantees and better quality of irrigation systems (Berbel et al, 2019;Fernandez Garcia et al, 2014), and also to decoupled payments of the CAP that encourage agricultural production adaptation to markets (Corominas, 2011;Garcia-Vila et al, 2008;Lopez-Gunn et al, 2012).…”