Stakeholders’ Perspective on Groundwater Management in Four Water-Stressed Mediterranean Areas: Priorities and Challenges

Recent studies highlight the fragility of the Mediterranean basin against climate stresses and the difficulties of managing the sustainable development of groundwater resources. In this work, the main issues related to groundwater management have been identified from the stakeholder’s perspective in the following four representative water-stressed Mediterranean areas: the coastal aquifer of Comacchio (Italy), the Alto Guadalentín aquifer (Spain), the alluvial aquifer of the Gediz River basin (Turkey), and the Azraq aquifer (Azraq Wetland Reserve, Jordan). This has been achieved by designing a methodology to involve and engage a representative set of stakeholders, including a questionnaire to learn their point of view concerning the current management of aquifer systems and their experience with the already available tools for groundwater resource management, such as monitoring networks and numerical models. The outcome of the survey has allowed us to identify both particular and common challenges among the four study sites and among the various groups of stakeholders. This information provides valuable insights to improve the transfer of scientific knowledge from the research centers to the authorities managing the groundwater resources and it will help to plan more effective research activities on aquifer management. The proposed methodology could be applied in other aquifers facing similar problems.This study has received funding in the framework of the RESERVOIR project: (sustainable groundwater RESources managEment by integrating eaRth observation deriVed monitoring and flOw modelIng Results), funded by the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) programme supported by the European Union (Grant Agreement 1924; https://reservoir-prima.org/, accessed on 13 March 2022). The research was also funded by the University of Pavia in the framework of a research grant award “assegno di tipo A premiale” for research activities at the Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences, within the research project entitled “Sustainable groundwater resources management by integrating A-DInSAR derived monitoring and flow modeling results” assigned to Roberta Bonì from March 2019 to February 2021

Stakeholders’ Perspective on Groundwater Management in Four Water-Stressed Mediterranean Areas: Priorities and Challenges

none21sìopenBonì, Roberta; Teatini, Pietro; Zoccarato, Claudia; Guardiola-Albert, Carolina; Ezquerro, Pablo; Bru, Guadalupe; Tomás, Roberto; Valdes-Abellan, Javier; Pla, Conception; Navarro-Hernández, María I.; Elçi, Alper; Çaylak, Baris; Ören, Ali Hakan; Shatanawi, Khaldoun; Mohammad, Alsharifa Hind; Hajar, Husam Abu; Letterio, Tommaso; Genovesi, Roberto; Hreisha, Hazem; Al-Mimi, Qamar; Meisina, ClaudiaBonì, Roberta; Teatini, Pietro; Zoccarato, Claudia; Guardiola-Albert, Carolina; Ezquerro, Pablo; Bru, Guadalupe; Tomás, Roberto; Valdes-Abellan, Javier; Pla, Conception; Navarro-Hernández, María I.; Elçi, Alper; Çaylak, Baris; Ören, Ali Hakan; Shatanawi, Khaldoun; Mohammad, Alsharifa Hind; Hajar, Husam Abu; Letterio, Tommaso; Genovesi, Roberto; Hreisha, Hazem; Al-Mimi, Qamar; Meisina, Claudi