Water, Agriculture and the Environment in Spain ─ Can We Square the Circle?

"The world water problems are a due to bad governance, not to physical water scarcity."

This book is inspired by this statement and explores whether it holds in a specific country, Spain, where climatic conditions – Spain is one of the most arid countries of the European Union - would fully justify saying that water problems are due to physical water scarcity. The metrification of water uses and their monetary value is a first important step in understanding how reallocation of water among users could help mitigating many of current water problems in Spain. However, water reallocation among users or from users to nature is far from simple. Initiatives portrayed as the solution to the water governance ‘jigsaw’ – e.g. water trade, improved water use efficiency, users collective action, public participation – are not free of difficulties and shortcomings. The book explores the growing need for maintaining Spain’s natural capital and the human component of water governance – people’s needs, wishes, (vested) interests, aspirations – that often determine the result of decisions and, sometimes, lead water management to a deadlock. This book takes a step forward in showing a more complex - and also closer to reality - picture of water governance in Spain.

Lucia De Stefano is a research fellow at the Water Observatory of the Botin Foundation, and Associate Professor at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain), where she teaches hydrology and hydrogeology. Her previous position was as a research assistant at Oregon State University, USA, working on global studies on water conflicts and resilience to climate-change-induced water variability, and regional water governance benchmarking in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Lucia has worked a policy officer for WWF, the international environmental NGO and as a water management specialist in the private sector.
A hydrogeologist by training, she obtained her advanced degree in Geological Sciences from the University of Pavia (Italy), and holds a PhD on evaluation of water policies from Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. She received formal training in water conflict management and negotiation at Oregon State University, USA; and UNESCO-IHE in Delft, the Netherlands. Her main fields of interest are policy evaluation, water planning, groundwater management and the assessment of good governance attributes.

Prof. M. Ramon Llamas is Emeritus Professor of Hydrogeology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. Since 1986 he is a Fellow of Spain’s Royal Academy of Sciences. He is also Fellow of the European Academy of Science and Arts (2005). He is author or co-author of nearly 100 books or monographs and almost 400 scientific papers. He has received the Cannes International Great Prize for Water in 2006 and is a Member of the French Academie de l’Eau (2006). He was President of the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) from 1984 to 1989. In 1992 he was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society of the United Kingdom. He has been coordinator of the UNESCO Working Group on the Ethics of the Use of Freshwater Resources (1998–1999) and has been member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International NGO Action Against Hunger (1999–2004). Since 1998 he is Director of the Water Observatory of the Botin Foundation.