La Mancha Plain lies in the core of Spain and partially stretches over the Guadiana River Upper Basin (UGB), is one of the most arid regions of the Iberian Peninsula, indeed “La Mancha” in Arabic means “the dry”, and also houses a vast Aquifer that has supported the related numerous marshlands and hydro-ecosystems in harmony with the human development till the 1970s, when the “Agrarian Green Revolution” commenced. Land reclamation over River and lagoon beds joined to the irrigation implementation of more than 150.000 Ha have badly bled the water resources to the maximum usable limit, lowering the phreatic table down to 60 meters, provoking a serious ecological damage for the 25.000 Ha of wetlands highly dependent on shallow phreatic levels. Recently, Nature granted the wettest period ever registered in the area (2009-2012) which caused an incredible natural replenishment of that Aquifer deficit. However, even though several costly plans and policies have been undertaken, it is still pending to effectively control the extractions, to manage the Aquifer within a portion allowing a certain continuous upwelling to enliven the Guadiana River real spring, and also, to adjust the essential agriculture sector to the environmental conditions and carrying capacity of the system.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:kth-173875 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Doncel Fuentes, Pablo |
| Publisher | KTH, Mark- och vattenteknik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | TRITA-LWR Degree Project, 1651-064X ; 2015:11 |
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