Water, Agriculture and the Environment in Spain: can we square the circle?

Water, Agriculture and the Environment in Spain: can we square the circle?
Author: Lucia De Stefano
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2012-10-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0415631521

"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.

Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes

Mediterranean Oak Woodland Working Landscapes
Author: Pablo Campos
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2013-06-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400767072

The oak tree was a boon companion as humans expanded their presence across much of the globe. While oak woodlands (Quercus spp.) come today in stunningly diverse forms, the stately dehesas of Spain and the dramatic oak-dominated ranchlands of California are working landscapes where cultivation and manipulation for a couple of millennia have shaped Mediterranean-type ecosystems into a profoundly modified yet productive environment that is sought-after by every manner of species. The grazing of wildlife and livestock in oak woodlands yields a remarkable plant and animal biodiversity, creating a mosaic of habitats and visually pleasing savannas. Added products unique to Spain such as Iberian pigs and cork, and in California multiple landowner benefits, include valued ecosystem services that allow owners, visitors, and conservation supporters to experience the benefits of woodland life. With its 15 chapters a decade in the making, this handsomely illustrated book covers key topics in oak woodland policy, ecology, and management in Spain and California, presenting new research results and reviewing an existing expert literature.

Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions
Author: Kurt Schwabe
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 510
Release: 2013-07-08
Genre: Science
ISBN: 940076636X

Offering a cross-country examination and comparison of drought awareness and experience, this book shows how scientists, water managers, and policy makers approach drought and water scarcity in arid and semi-arid regions of Spain, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and the United States.

Agrindex

Agrindex
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1064
Release: 1975
Genre: Agriculture
ISBN:

Integrated Water Resources Management in the 21st Century: Revisiting the paradigm

Integrated Water Resources Management in the 21st Century: Revisiting the paradigm
Author: Pedro Martinez-Santos
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2014-03-03
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1138001430

Integrated water resources management advocates a coordinated approach for managing water resources in a way that balances social and economic needs with concern for the environment. While potentially useful, integrated water management is also controversial. Supporters believe that the multi-dimensional nature of water can only be understood and managed from a holistic perspective, while critics often argue that integrated water management lacks suffi ciently well-defi ned rules for its practical implementation. This book, written by academics, users and practitioners, provides a down-to-earth approach to the ideal of integrated water resources management, drawing from conceptual frameworks and real-life practice to identify the key aspects that are yet to be resolved. As such, it examines the role of water accounting, food trade, environmental externalities and intangible values as key aspects whose consideration may help the water management community move forward. Overall, integrated water resources management is perceived to be a useful utopia, whose value lies more in the steps that need to be taken to make it a reality than in achieving its ever-elusive end goal.

Groundwater Quality Sustainability

Groundwater Quality Sustainability
Author: Piotr Maloszewski
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2012-08-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0415698413

Sustainable groundwater development requires knowledge of the appropriate recharge and transport-processes. This is a prerequisite to understanding: (i) groundwater resources and their availability, and (ii) the dependence between groundwater and the environment. Conceptual understanding of groundwater flow at both temporal and spatial scales (local and regional) is essential for management that will support engineering, industry, agriculture, ecology, and all environmentally related issues. This book has been prepared for scientists, researchers, students, engineers, water resources specialists, groundwater consultants, government administrators and teachers. It is of direct and applied interest to practitioners in hydrogeology and groundwater (resources, quality, pollution, protection and clean-up), geochemistry and hydrogeochemical modelling, and investigators into environmental hydrology, groundwater dependent ecosystems, and other practical environmental issues.

Environmental Transport Processes

Environmental Transport Processes
Author: Bruce E. Logan
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 493
Release: 2012-03-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1118230078

A unique approach to the challenges of complex environmental systems Environmental Transport Processes, Second Edition provides much-needed guidance on mass transfer principles in environmental engineering. It focuses on working with uncontrolled conditions involving biological and physical systems, offering examples from diverse fields, including mass transport, kinetics, wastewater treatment, and unit processes. This new edition is fully revised and updated, incorporating modern approaches and practice problems at the end of chapters, making the Second Edition more concise, accessible, and easy to use. The book discusses the fundamentals of transport processes occurring in natural environments, with special emphasis on working at the biological physical interface. It considers transport and kinetics in terms of systems that involve microorganisms, along with in-depth coverage of particles, size spectra, and calculations for particles that can be considered either spheres or fractals. The book's treatment of particles as fractals is especially unique and the Second Edition includes a new section on exoelectrogenic biofilms. It also addresses dispersion in natural and engineered systems unlike any other book on the subject. Readers will learn to tackle with confidence complex environmental systems and make transport calculations in heterogeneous environments with mixtures of chemicals.