Revisiting groundwater overdraft based on the experience of the Mancha Occidental Aquifer, Spain

Martínez‐Santos, Pedro; Castaño, Silvino Castaño; Hernández-Espriú, Antonio

doi:10.1007/s10040-018-1735-0

Cited by 16 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Intensive groundwater pumping for irrigation caused discharge zones to shift from the wetlands to the central part of the aquifer. (Martínez‐Santos et al, ). This caused a near‐total dissociation between the surface and groundwater networks for much of the 1970–2014 period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Tablas de Damiel case provides a good example of the limited ability of humans to manage aquifers and groundwater‐dependent ecosystems (Martínez‐Santos et al, ). From the point of view of the water balance, this experience shows how regional recharge and extraction figures may be subject to important uncertainties, and thus, that water balances based on average values may hide more than they reveal (Table ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Groundwater extraction, irrigated surface, and annual rainfall in the Mancha Occidental aquifer (1975–2016; after Martínez‐Santos et al, )…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In practice, this implied a return to near‐pristine hydrological conditions after 40 years of intensive pumping. Though anticipated in several modelling studies (Martínez‐Santos, Llamas, & Martínez‐Alfaro, ; Zorrilla et al, ; Martínez‐Santos, Henriksen, Zorrilla, & Martínez‐Alfaro, ), this triggered an unexpected situation for water managers and stakeholders (Martínez‐Santos et al, ), thus highlighting the need to develop adaptive management strategies to manage groundwater under uncertainty (Henriksen, Zorrilla‐Miras, de la Hera, & Brugnach, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The aim is to determine the hydrochemical status of groundwater in the surroundings of the National Park at a series of key historical moments between 1974 and 2014. An important aspect behind this analysis is that the underlying aquifer has experienced an unexpected groundwater‐level recovery after 40 years of intensive pumping (Martínez‐Santos, Castaño‐Castaño, & Hernández‐Espriú, ). Thus, the outcomes provide a rare opportunity to observe how groundwater quality degradation may be more difficult to revert than changes in water quantity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Long‐term effects of aquifer overdraft and recovery on groundwater quality in a Ramsar wetland: Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, Spain

Castaño

Losa

Martínez‐Santos

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park is one of Spain's most representative groundwater‐dependent ecosystems. Under natural conditions, water inflows combined brackish surface water from River Gigüela with freshwater inputs from River Guadiana and the underlying aquifer. Since the mid‐1970s, aquifer overexploitation caused the desiccation of the wetlands and neighbouring springs. The National Park remained in precarious hydrological conditions for three decades, with the only exception of rapid floods due to extreme rainfall events and sporadic water transfers from other basins. In the late 2000s, a decrease in groundwater abstraction and an extraordinarily wet period reversed the trend. The aquifer experienced an unexpected recovery of groundwater levels (over 20 m in some areas), thus restoring groundwater discharge to springs and wetlands. The complex historical evolution of the water balance in this site has resulted in substantial changes in surface and groundwater quality. This becomes evident when comparing the pre‐1980 groundwater quality and the hydrochemical status in the wetland in two different periods, under “dry” and “wet” conditions. Although the system is close to full recovery from the groundwater‐level viewpoint, bouncing back in the major hydrochemical constituents has not yet been obtained. These still appear to evolve in response to the previous overexploitation state. Moreover, in some sectors, there are groundwater‐dependent ecosystems that remain different to those found in preoverexploitation times. The experience of Las Tablas de Damiel provides an observatory of long‐term changes in wetland water quality, demonstrating that the effects of aquifer overexploitation on aquatic ecosystems are more than a mere alteration of the water balance and that groundwater quality is the key to aquifer and aquatic ecosystem sustainability.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Groundwater extraction, irrigated surface, and annual rainfall in the Mancha Occidental aquifer (1975–2016; after Martínez‐Santos et al, )…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Long‐term effects of aquifer overdraft and recovery on groundwater quality in a Ramsar wetland: Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, Spain

Castaño

Losa

Martínez‐Santos

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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Challenges in sustainably managing groundwater in the Australian Great Artesian Basin: lessons from current and historic legislative regimes

Robertson

2019

Hydrogeol J

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Uberizing Agriculture in Drylands: A Few Enriched, Everyone Endangered

Martínez-Valderrama,

Gartzia,

Olcina

et al. 2023

Water Resour Manage

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The future of water resources relies heavily on food production. Large-scale agriculture, driven by irrigation technology and cost reduction, has transformed traditional dryland croplands into a very profitable but environmentally and socially impactful agribusiness. The study of groundwater-dependent food systems is fragmented. Hydrology, on one hand, concentrates on water resources while overlooking surface agricultural processes. Meanwhile, the agro-economic sector is fixated on optimizing resource utilization for short-term profit maximization. Consequently, numerous adverse environmental and social consequences are overlooked by these conventional approaches. To steer resource usage and our food systems in a new direction, prioritizing the integration of this collective knowledge is imperative. Here, we analyze the impacts of greenhouse agriculture in SE Spain, one of the global hotspots of fruit and vegetable production. Through the lens of the treadmill of production theory we uncover the model’s significant profitability and its environmental and social effects, which include unequal wealth distribution, precarious working conditions, and the depletion and pollution of belowground water reserves. Reducing water use and limiting the development of new irrigated areas, using crop species adapted to available water resources, and empowering farmers against large distributors are key measures to avoid the social and economic collapse of this region, and of other dryland areas that have followed a similar unsustainable development model. The need for these changes becomes more pressing as the impacts of climate change continue to escalate. Within this context, groundwater reserves represent vital strategic resources that must not be wasted.

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Revisiting groundwater overdraft based on the experience of the Mancha Occidental Aquifer, Spain

Cited by 16 publications

References 49 publications

Long‐term effects of aquifer overdraft and recovery on groundwater quality in a Ramsar wetland: Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, Spain

Long‐term effects of aquifer overdraft and recovery on groundwater quality in a Ramsar wetland: Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park, Spain

Challenges in sustainably managing groundwater in the Australian Great Artesian Basin: lessons from current and historic legislative regimes

Uberizing Agriculture in Drylands: A Few Enriched, Everyone Endangered

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