1. Water Scarcity
Do you intend to reconsider your definition of populations and areas affected by water scarcity (source of information, selection criteria, specific methodology, etc)?
We think the proposed method clearly establishes the areas affected by scarcity, avoiding generalizing to the whole of a hydrographical river basin, or to a Country, in addition it points out significant differences with the drought phenomena.
On the other hand, the selection of exploitation systems as units delimitating areas with scarcity allows a better control of the deficiencies and effects of adopted measures, since these exploitation systems are common elements of hydraulic management.
However, if no other country is using this system, and data need to be compared among MS then we could state that population of affected areas equals to the sum of affected RBDs (however, this should be considered as an extrapolation):
- Total Júcar RBD: 4,8 million people; 43.000 km2
- Total Guadiana RBD: 1,6 million people; 56.000 km2
- Total Segura RBD: 1,7 million people; 19.000 km2
- Total Andalusian Mediterranean basins: 2,1 million people; 18.000 km2
Total 10 million people (25 % of Spanish Population); 136.000 km2 (26 % of Spanish surface)
Regarding the identification of the key players and causes, could you please give a rough estimation of the abstracted volumes for tourism purposes?
We are unable to provide national totals. A case-study of tourism effects is provided for the Júcar RBD.
Could you please provide further quantitative information on the impacts of water scarcity (even if limited to one or several river basins)?
Derived impacts from scarcity are not measurable as losses, since scarcity is a recurrent phenomenon. It is possible to speak of "deficiencies", such as lack of economic development, industrial or agricultural weave (not quantifiable, due to lack of data), impossibility of power generation, difficulty of maintaining the ecosystems associated to water resources, or chronic environmental problems. In addition, scarcity generates an uncertainty of guarantee. Although there might be just enough resources to satisfy demand, lack of additional resources to overcome demand peaks might generate supply problems in the long-term and directly impact aquatic ecosystems (wetlands, ecological flows and associated natural systems).
Economic – in particular for tourism- and environmental data are still needed.
See updated questionnaire, which now includes some general information.
2. Droughts
What criteria did you take into account to consider events as "drought events"?
Due to the climatic variability of the territory, the different hydrographic river basins have adopted different definitions from drought and reference data, when establishing the beginning of these dry periods.
Thus, the Ebro River Basin, as an example, establishes to consider the beginning of the drought that precipitation during two consecutive months is 60% fewer than the average of that month; drought ends when precipitation is greater or equal to the average; the Guadiana River Basin requires that in twelve consecutive months the precipitation is lesser than 75% of the average of a temporary series of more than 30 years; in the North and Guadalquivir River Basins they require that the resources available are less than the estimated demand.
For the whole Spanish territory, it has been agreed upon agglutinating the river basins that are considered in periods of drought, in order to totalize the values of surface, population, etc.
It must be pointed out that in the 1990/91-1995/96 period mentioned in the questionnaire, most of the Spanish River basins, except for the Catalonian internal river basins and some of the north of the country, were assumed to be within a period of drought.
Can you confirm that you indicated all major drought events that have occurred for the last 30 years?
The 1990/91-1995/96 period, in addition of being one of driest historical series, is the one that counts with greater amount of information available on its consequences, as well as adopted measures.
The dry period that is currently affecting Spain, from 2004, is considered (while it finishes and its global impact is determined properly) as the driest of the past 120-year-series.
How did you estimate the duration, population and area affected by drought (source of information, selection criteria, specific methodology, etc)?
Duration: the interval of hydrological years studied by the river basins has been considered, based on the adopted definitions of drought in each case. (Hydrological year is defined in the questionnaire).
Population: the total populations of the affected river basins by droughts have been considered; these amounts have been added to obtain a total in Spain.
A thorough description of each drought event would be much appreciated.
We have provided start/end year, major impacts and affected sectors. Please indicate what additional information we may provide. We will try to give some specific information on affected crops.
Regarding the identification of the key players and causes, could you please give a rough estimation of the abstracted volumes for tourism purposes?
Although we are unable to provide global figures, we are including a case-study for the Júcar RBD and suffered impacts from tourism.
Could you please provide further quantitative information on the impacts of droughts (even if limited to one or several river basins) with estimation of costs?
We do not have enough data available.
Economic – in particular tourism - and environmental data are still needed.
We do not have enough data available.
3. Use of EU funds
According to your answer, could we conclude that enough attention is paid to water scarcity and drought when defining the national priorities for the use of EU funds, in particular in rural development programmes, structural funds, and LIFE?
National priorities are clearly identified, and important amounts have been allocated to cope with drought and scarcity issues. Direct or indirect measures funded through structural funds are mentioned in the questionnaire (emergency structural measures such as drought wells, improvement of sewage treatment, improvement and building of desalination plants…) although it is clear that meanwhile there are specific EU funds to address extreme phenomena as floods, there are not equivalent instruments for droughts or scarcity.
4. WFD
Could you elaborate a bit more on you expectations and gaps related to WFD?
There are clear gaps for addressing droughts and scarcity. There is a need of identifying strategies on how to apply the Directive while suffering water stress. The group of WS&D and more specifically the sub-activity of drought management plans should help on exchanging information to ease the process. The lack of supply guarantee when an area suffers from scarcity also needs to be taking into account, since it directly affects aquatic ecosystems when urban supply is prioritized.