The scarce consolider project on water in Iberian river basins

Navarro-Ortega, Alicia et al.-- Trabajo presentado en el 6th SETAC World Congress (2012), celebrado en Berlín del 20 al 24 de mayo de 2012.

Water resources in Spain are subjected to rising pressures, related to the socioeconomic activities of an increasing human population, expressed by accelerated land use changes, and the specific climate characteristic of Mediterranean countries. The main panels on climate change predict a future scenario of increasing frequency of floods and extended droughts in the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in the Mediterranean basin. This will be added to the currently existing problems, and will probably affect the available water resources, their quality, the functioning of associated ecosystems, especially rivers and their aquifers, and the ecosystem services they provide. In such context, SCARCE is a project that aims to describe and predict the relevance of global change impacts on water availability, water quality and ecosystem services in Mediterranean river basins of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as their impacts on the human society and economy. Hence, the project has assembled a multidisciplinary team of leading scientists in the fields of hydrology, geomorphology, chemistry, ecology, ecotoxicology, economy, engineering and modelling, in an unknown effort in the CONSOLIDER framework. The project also considers the active involvement of Water Authorities and other relevant agents as stakeholders. SCARCE has two complementary objectives. The first tackles basic research questions and will define the long-term patterns and the mechanisms that operate in the hydrology, water quality, habitat dynamics, and ecosystem structure and function of Mediterranean basins. The second objective is related to the effects of climate and human foot-print (taken both as key elements of global change) that provide on the ecosystem services, rivers and streams, as well as the urgent need to implement and eventually refine the water management policies demanded by the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Therefore, the project emphasizes linking basic research and management practices in a single framework. The project has the external support of several Water Authorities and stakeholders. SCARCE is structured across a series of Horizontal and Thematic Work packages that coordinate the various scientific goals, as well as their interactions. These WPs deal with data collection (WP1), hydrology (WP2), sediment transport and river channel morphology (WP3), chemical and biological quality (WP4), ecosystem processes (WP5), modelling (WP6), socioeconomic scenarios (WP7), ecosystem services (WP8), river management (WP9) and coordination (WP10).

Peer Reviewed