Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Multi-objective, multiple participant decision support for water management in the Andarax catchment, Almeria

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Environmental Geology

Abstract

Water management in the Andarax river basin (Almeria, Spain) is a multi-objective, multi-participant, long-term decision-making problem that faces several challenges. Adequate water allocation needs informed decisions to meet increasing socio-economic demands while respecting the environmental integrity of this basin. Key players in the Andarax water sector include the municipality of Almeria, the irrigators involved in the intensive greenhouse agricultural sector, and booming second residences. A decision support system (DSS) is developed to rank different sustainable planning and management alternatives according to their socio-economic and environmental performance. The DSS is intimately linked to sustainability indicators and is designed through a public participation process. Indicators are linked to criteria reflecting stakeholders concerns in the 2005 field survey, such as fulfilling water demand, water price, technical and economical efficiency, social and environmental impacts. Indicators can be partly quantified after simulating the operation of the groundwater reservoir over a 20-year planning period and partly through a parallel expert evaluation process. To predict the impact of future water demand in the catchment, several development scenarios are designed to be evaluated in the DSS. The successive multi-criteria analysis of the performance indicators permits the ranking of the different management alternatives according to the multiple objectives formulated by the different sectors/participants. This allows more informed and transparent decision-making processes for the Andarax river basin, recognizing both the socio-economic and environmental dimensions of water resources management.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Agencia Andaluza del Agua (2005) El Agua, Naturalmente (Water, Naturally), Consejeria de Medio Ambiente, Sevilla, Spain

  • Banae Costa C (1990) Readings in multiple criteria decision aid. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Barreira A (2003) The participatory regime of water governance in the Iberian peninsula. Water Int 28:350–357

    Google Scholar 

  • CAP (2002) Inventory and characterization of irrigation in Andalusia. Ministry of Agriculture and Fishing of Andalucia, Andalucia

    Google Scholar 

  • Castelletti A, Soncini-Sessa R (2004) PIP: a participatory and integrated planning procedure for decision making in water resource systems. In: IFAC Workshop on Modelling and Control for Participatory Planning and Managing Water Systems, Sept 28–Oct 1, Venice

  • Dinar A, Rosegrant M, Meinzen-Dick R (1997) Water allocation mechanisms—principles and examples. Worldbank Policy Research Working Paper, 1779, 48

  • Diputación de Almeria (2001) Estudio del Mercado Local de Empleo del Bajo, Medio y Alto Andarax y del Nacimiento (Local employment market study of Lower, Middle and High Andarax Valley and Nacimiento). Diputación de Almeria, Almeria

  • Embid A (2003) Water law in Spain after 1985. Water Int 28:290–294

    Google Scholar 

  • EU (2000) Directive 2000/60/EC of the European parliament and of the council of 23 October 2000 establishing a framework for community action in the field of water policy. Official J Eur Commun, L 327:72

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferraro García F (2000) El Sistema Productivo Almerianse y los Condicionamientos Hidrolgicos (The Almerian production system and the Hydrological Stipulations). Estudios y Monografías de Caja Rural de Almeria, Civitas Ediciones. S.L., Madrid

  • Hofwegem P, Jaspers F (1999) Analytical framework for integrated water resources management, IHE Monograph 2, Delft, The Netherlands

  • Instituto de Estudios de Cajamar (2004) El modelo economico Almeria basado en la agricultura intensiva (The Almerian economic model based on intensive agriculture). Caja Rural Intermediterranea, Cajamar, Almeria

  • Llamas MR (2004) Cuanta agua hay en españa? A que precio y de quien es? [How much water does Spain have? At which price and who owns it?], In: G. E de la Asociacion Internacional de Recursos Hidricos (ed) “Jornadas sobre El análisis económico en la directiva marco del agua: incidencia e implicaciones en España” [Conference on the economic analysis in the Water Framework Directive: Incidence and implications in Spain]

  • Martinez L, Hernandez N (2003) The role of groundwater in Spain’s water policy. Water Int 28:313–320

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh B, Jeffrey P, Lemon M, Winder N (2005) On the design of computer-based models for integrated environmental science. Environ Manage 35:741–752

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mendoza G, Prabhu R (2000) Multiple criteria decision making approaches to assessing forest sustainability using criteria and indicators. For Ecol Manage 131:107–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perez A (2001) La oferta de aguas subterráneas para abastecimientos urbanos [Groundwater supply for urban water supply], In: Hernandez-Mora N, Llamas MR (eds) La economia del agua subterranea y su gestion colectiva [Economy and conjoint management of groundwater]. Ediciones Mundi-Prensa, Madrid, pp 75–96

  • Plan-Hidrologico-Cuenca-Sur (1999) “Hydrological plan for Cuenca Sur”. ORDEN de 6 de septiembre de 1999 (BOE 17/09/1999) por la que se dispone la publicación de las determinaciones de contenido normativo del Plan Hidrolgico de Cuenca Sur, aprobado por Real Decreto 1664/1998 de 24 de julio, BOE 17/09/1999

  • Pulido-Bosch A, Sánchez-Martos F, Martínez JL, Navarrete F (1992) Groundwater problems in a semiarid area (Low Andarx River, Almería, Spain). Environ Geol Water Sci 20(3):195–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puyol R (1975) Almeria, un área deprimida del sudeste español “Almeria, a depressed area in the southeast of Spain”. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientficas, Madrid

    Google Scholar 

  • Savenije H (2002) Why water is not an ordinary economic good, or why the girl is special. Phys Chem Earth 27:741–744

    Google Scholar 

  • Srdjevic B, Medeiros Y, Faria A (2004) An objective multi-criteria evaluation of water management scenarios. Water Resour Manage 18:35–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vives R (2003) Economic and social profitability of water use for irrigation in Andalucia. Water Int 28:326–333

    Google Scholar 

  • Yurdusev M, O’connell P (2005) Environmentally-sensitive water resources planning. Water Resour Manage 19:375–397

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was undertaken in support of the EU ALERT project (contract no. GOCE-CT-2004-505329/website http://www.coastal-alert.bgs.ac.uk/public/index.html). We would like to thank the “Grupo de Investigación de Recursos Hídricos y Geología Ambiental” of the University of Almeria (UAL) for their collaboration, with special reference to Isaac Francés and Sara Joretto for their contribution to the field work. We are also grateful to all stakeholders in the Andarax catchment, with special reference to the Comunidad de Regantes de Cuatro Vegas and the institutions Instituto del Agua and CENTA.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agricultural Engineering Unit, Catholic University of Louvain (UCL), Place Croix du Sud 2, Bte 2, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    N. Van Cauwenbergh, D. Pinte & M. Vanclooster

  2. UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA, Delft, The Netherlands

    A. Tilmant

  3. Grupo de Investigacion de Recursos Hidricos y Geologia Ambiental, Universidad de Almeria (UAL), Edificio CITE II-B, 04120, Almeria, Spain

    I. Frances & A. Pulido-Bosch

Authors
  1. N. Van Cauwenbergh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. D. Pinte
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. A. Tilmant
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. I. Frances
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. A. Pulido-Bosch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. M. Vanclooster
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to N. Van Cauwenbergh.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Van Cauwenbergh, N., Pinte, D., Tilmant, A. et al. Multi-objective, multiple participant decision support for water management in the Andarax catchment, Almeria. Environ Geol 54, 479–489 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0847-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-007-0847-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation