Assessing the effectiveness of Multi-Sector Partnerships to manage droughts: The case of the Jucar river basin

[EN] South-east Spain is a drought prone area, characterized by climate variability and water scarcity. The Jucar River Basin, located in Eastern Spain, has suffered many historical droughts with significant socio-economic impacts. For nearly a hundred years, the institutional and non-institutional strategies to cope with droughts have been successful through the development of institutions and partnerships for drought management including multiple actors. In this paper, we show how the creation and institutionalisation of Multi-Sector Partnerships (MSPs) has supported the development of an efficient drought management. Furthermore, we analyze the performance of one of the suggested instruments by the partnership related to drought management in the basin. Two methodologies are used for these purposes. On one hand, the Capital Approach Framework to analyze the effectiveness of the governance processes in a particular partnership (Permanent Drought Commission), which aims to highlight the governance strength and weakness of the MSP for enhancing drought management in the Jucar River Basin. Through a dynamic analysis of the changes that the partnership has undergone over time to successfully deal with droughts, its effectiveness on drought management is demonstrated. On the other hand, an econometric approach is used to analyze the economic efficiency of the emergency drought wells as one of the key drought mitigation measures suggested by the Permanent Drought Commission and implemented. The results demonstrate the potential and efficiency of applying drought wells as mitigation measures (significant reduction of economic losses, around 50 M(sic) during the drought period, 2005-2008).We acknowledge the project ENHANCE (Grant Agreement number 308438) for the financial support to this research. As well as, we thank the Jucar River Basin stakeholders for providing the help to get data for the analysis. The data used are listed in the references, tables, and Appendix A.Carmona, M.; Mañez, M.; Andreu Álvarez, J.; Pulido-Velazquez, M.; Haro Monteagudo, D.; Lopez-Nicolas, A.; Cremades, R. (2017). Assessing the effectiveness of Multi-Sector Partnerships to manage droughts: The case of the Jucar river basin. Earth's Future. 5(7):750-770. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017EF000545S7507705

Development of operating rules for a complex multireservoir system by coupling genetic algorithms and network optimization

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Hydrological Sciences Journal on MAY 1 2013, available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.779777[EN] An alternative procedure for assessment of reservoir Operation Rules (ORs) under drought situations is proposed. The definition of ORs for multi-reservoir water resources systems (WRSs) is a topic that has been widely studied by means of optimization and simulation techniques. A traditional approach is to link optimization methods with simulation models. Thus the objective here is to obtain drought ORs for a real and complex WRS: the Júcar River basin in Spain, in which one of the main issues is the resource allocation among agricultural demands in periods of drought. To deal with this problem, a method based on the combined use of genetic algorithms (GA) and network flow optimization (NFO) is presented. The GA used was PIKAIA, which has previously been used in other water resources related fields. This algorithm was linked to the SIMGES simulation model, a part of the AQUATOOL decision support system (DSS). Several tests were developed for defining the parameters of the GA. The optimization of various ORs was analysed with the objective of minimizing short-term and long-term water deficits. The results show that simple ORs produce similar results to more sophisticated ones. The usefulness of this approach in the assessment of ORs for complex multi-reservoir systems is demonstrated.The authors wish to thank the Confederacion Hidrogrofica del Jucar (Spanish Ministry of the Environment) for the data provided in developing this study and the Comision Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnologia, CICYT (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) for funding the projects INTEGRAME (contract CGL2009-11798) and SCARCE (programme Consolider-Ingenio 2010, project CSD2009-00065). The authors also thank the European Commission (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation) for funding the project DROUGHT-R&SPI (programme FP7-ENV-2011, project 282769) and the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission for funding the project SIRIUS (FP7-SPACE-2010-1, project 262902). We are grateful to the reviewers for their valuable comments, which have improved this paper.Lerma Elvira, N.; Paredes Arquiola, J.; Andreu Álvarez, J.; Solera Solera, A. (2013). Development of operating rules for a complex multireservoir system by coupling genetic algorithms and network optimization. Hydrological Sciences Journal. 58(4):797-812. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2013.779777S79781258

Patterns of presence and concentration of pesticides in the main course of the Júcar River (Eastern Spain)

The Júcar River, in a typical Mediterranean Basin, is expected to suffer a decline in water quality and quantity as a consequence of the climate change. This study is focused on the presence and distribution of pesticides in water and fish, using the first extensive optimization and application of the QuEChERS method to determine pesticides in river fish. Majority pesticides in water -in terms of presence and concentration- were dichlofenthion, chlorfenvinphos, imazalil, pyriproxyfen and prochloraz (associated with a frequent use in farming activities), as well as buprofezin, chlopyriphos and hexythiaxoz. In fish, the main compounds were azinphos-ethyl, chlorpyriphos, diazinon, dimethoate and ethion. The analysis of bio-concentration in fish indicated differences by species. The maximum average concentration was detected in European eel (a critically endangered fish species). The wide presence of pesticides in water and fish suggests potential severe effects on fish populations and other biota in future scenarios of climate change, in a river basin with several endemic and endangered fish species. The potential effects of pesticides in combination with multiple stressors require further research to prioritize the management of specific chemicals and suggest effective restoration actions at the basin scale.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with the project SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065). Authors also thank the help of the confederacion Hidrografica del Jucar (Gobierno de Esparia) which provided environmental data, and to all the colleagues who collaborated in sampling campaigns, R. Munoz-Mas, R.M.S. Costa and J.D. Alcaraz-Hernandez.Belenguer, V.; Martinez-Capel, F.; Masiá, A.; Picó, Y. (2014). Patterns of presence and concentration of pesticides in the main course of the Júcar River (Eastern Spain). Journal of Hazardous Materials. 265:271-279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2013.11.016S27127926

Linking Pan-European data to the local scale for decision making for global change and water scarcity within water resources planning and management

[EN] This study focuses on a novel type of methodology which connects Pan-European data to the local scale in the field of water resources management. This methodology is proposed to improve and facilitate the decision making within the planning and management of water resources, taking into account climate change and its expected impacts. Our main point of interest is focused on the assessment of the predictability of extreme events and their possible effects, specifically droughts and water scarcity. Consequently, the Júcar River Basin was selected as the case study, due to the ongoing water scarcity problems and the last drought episodes suffered in the Mediterranean region. In order to study these possible impacts, we developed a modeling chain divided into four steps, they are: i) data collection, ii) analysis of available data, iii) models calibration and iv) climate impact analysis. Over previous steps, we used climate data from 15 different regional climate models (RCMs) belonging to the three different Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) coming from a hydrological model across all of Europe called E-HYPE. The data were bias corrected and used to obtain statistical results of the availability of water resources for the future (horizon 2039) and in form of indicators. This was performed through a hydrological (EVALHID), stochastic (MASHWIN) and risk management (SIMRISK) models, all of which were specifically calibrated for this basin. The results show that the availability of water resources is much more enthusiastic than in the current situation, indicating the possibility that climate change, which was predicted to occur in the future has already happened in the Júcar River Basin. It seems that the so called Effect 80 , an important decrease in water resources for the last three decades, is not well contemplated in the initial data.The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, suggestions and positive feedback. All remaining errors, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Jucar River Basin Authority - Confederacion Hidrografica del Jucar (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery, Food and Environment) for providing data to develop this study. The authors wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economyand Competitiveness for its financial support through the NUTEGES project (CGL2012-34978) and ERAS project (CTM2016-77804-P). We also value the support provided by the European Community's Seventh Framework Program in financing the projects ENHANCE (FP7-ENV-2012, 308438), AGUAMOD (Interreg V-B Sudoe 2016), SWICCA (ECMRWF-Copernicus-FA 2015/C3S_441-LOT1/SMHI) and IMPREX (H2020-WATER-2014-2015, 641811).Suárez-Almiñana, S.; Pedro Monzonís, M.; Paredes Arquiola, J.; Andreu Álvarez, J.; Solera Solera, A. (2017). Linking Pan-European data to the local scale for decision making for global change and water scarcity within water resources planning and management. The Science of The Total Environment. 603-604:126-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.05.259S126139603-60

Water accounting for stressed river basins based on water resources management models

[EN] Water planning and the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) represent the best way to help decision makers to identify and choose the most adequate alternatives among other possible ones. The System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-W) is displayed as a tool for the building of water balances in a river basin, providing a standard approach to achieve comparability of the results between different territories. The target of this paper is to present the building up of a tool that enables the combined use of hydrological models and water resources models to fill in the SEEA-W tables. At every step of the modelling chain, we are capable to build the asset accounts and the physical water supply and use tables according to SEEA-W approach along with an estimation of the water services costs. The case study is the Jucar River Basin District (RBD), located in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula in Spain which as in other many Mediterranean basins is currently water-stressed. To guide this work we have used PATRICAL model in combination with AQUATOOL Decision Support System (DSS). The results indicate that for the average year the total use of water in the district amounts to 15,143 hm3/year, being the Total Water Renewable Water Resources 3909 hm3/year. On the other hand, the water service costs in Jucar RBD amounts to 1634 million per year at constant 2012 prices. It is noteworthy that 9% of these costs correspond to non-conventional resources, such as desalinated water, reused water and water transferred from other regions.The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, suggestions and positive feedback. All remaining errors, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Jucar River Basin Authority – Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment) for providing data to develop this study. The authors wish to thank the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness for its financial support through the NUTEGES project (CGL2012-34978). We also value the support provided by the European Community's Seventh Framework Program in financing the projects ENHANCE (FP7-ENV2012, 308438) and IMPREX (H2020-WATER-2014-2015, 641811).Pedro Monzonís, M.; Solera Solera, A.; Ferrer Polo, FJ.; Andreu Álvarez, J.; Estrela Monreal, T. (2016). Water accounting for stressed river basins based on water resources management models. The Science of The Total Environment. 565:181-190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.04.161S18119056

Comparing four methods for decision-tree induction: a case study on the invasive Iberian gudgeon (Gobio lozanoi; Doadrio & Madeira, 2004)

The invasion of freshwater ecosystems is a particularly alarming phenomenon in the Iberian Peninsula. Habitat suitability modelling is a proficient approach to extract knowledge about species ecology and to guide adequate management actions. Decision-trees are an interpretable modelling technique widely used in ecology, able to handle strongly nonlinear relationships with high order interactions and diverse variable types. Decision-trees recursively split the input space into two parts maximising child node homogeneity. This recursive partitioning is typically performed with axis-parallel splits in a top-down fashion. However, recent developments of the R packages oblique.tree, which allows the development of oblique split-based decision-trees, and evtree, which performs globally optimal searches with evolutionary algorithms to do so, seem to outperform the standard axis-parallel top-down algorithms; CART and C5.0. To evaluate their possible use in ecology, the two new partitioning algorithms were compared with the two well-known, standard axis-parallel algorithms. The entire process was performed in R by simultaneously tuning the decision-tree parameters and the variables subset with a genetic algorithm and modelling the presence-absence of the Iberian gudgeon (Gobio lozanoi; Doadrio & Madeira, 2004), an invasive fish species that has spread across the Iberian Peninsula. The accuracy and complexity of the trees, the modelled patterns of mesohabitat selection and the variables importance were compared. None of the new R packages, namely oblique.tree and evtree, outperformed the C5.0 algorithm. They rendered almost the same decision-trees as the CART algorithm, although they were completely interpretable they performed from four to eight partitions in comparison with C5.0, which resulted in a more complex structure with 17 partitions. Oblique.tree proved to be affected by prevalence and it does not include the possibility of weighting the observations, which potentially discourage its actual use. Although the use of evtree did not suggest a major improvement compared with the remaining packages, it allowed the development of regression trees which may be informative for additional modelling tasks such as abundance estimation. Looking at the resulting decision-trees, the optimal habitats for the Iberian gudgeon were large pools in lowland river segments with depositional areas and aquatic vegetation present, which typically appeared in the form of scattered macrophytes clumps. Furthermore, Iberian gudgeon seem to avoid habitats characterised by scouring phenomena and limited vegetated cover availability. Accordingly, we can assume that river regulation and artificial impoundment would have favoured the spread of the Iberian gudgeon across the entire peninsula.The study has been partially funded by the national Research project IMPADAPT (CGL2013-48424-C2-1-R) with MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy) and Feder funds and by the Confederacion Hidrografica del Jucar (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment). This study was also supported in part by the University Research Administration Center of the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. Finally, we are grateful to the colleagues who worked in the field data collection, especially Juan Diego Alcaraz-Henandez, Rui M. S. Costa and Aina Hernandez.Muñoz Mas, R.; Fukuda, S.; Vezza, P.; Martinez-Capel, F. (2016). Comparing four methods for decision-tree induction: a case study on the invasive Iberian gudgeon (Gobio lozanoi; Doadrio & Madeira, 2004). Ecological Informatics. 34:22-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2016.04.011S22343

Identifying the main sources of Silicate in coastal waters of the southern Gulf of Valencia (Western Mediterranean Sea)

[EN] Silicon is a major nutrient for siliceous primary producers, which can become a potential limiting nutrient in oligotrophic areas. Most of the silicon inputs to the marine environment come from continental discharges, from both superficial and ground waters. This study analyses the main sources of silicon and their dynamics along the southernmost 43 km of shoreline in the Gulf of Valencia (Western Mediterranean Sea). The salinity and silicate concentration in the different compartments (springs, freshwater wells, beach groundwater, surf zone and coastal waters) in this coastal area were determined. In addition, chlorophyll a and phytoplankton community were analyzed in the surf zone and coastal waters. Silicate concentrations in freshwater wells ranged between 130 and 150 mu M, whereas concentrations of this nutrient declined to 49 mu M in freshwater-seawater mixture transects. At the same time, there was a positive gradient in silicate for both freshwater and coastal waters southward. An amount of 18.7 t of dissolved silicate was estimated in the nearest first kilometre nearest to the coastline, 6 t of this silicate belonged to the background sea level. On the other hand, the sum of the main rivers in the area supplies 1.6 t of dissolved silicate per day. This implies that a large amount of the remaining 11.1 t must derive from submarine groundwater discharges, which would thus represent 59% of the coastal dissolved silicate budget. Overall, it is suggested that a subterranean transport pathway must contribute considerably to silicate concentrations throughout this zone, which is characterized as permeable. (c) 2017 Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier Sp. z o.o.The authors acknowledge the financial support for this study from the CNPq (Brazil - Grant 303672/2013-7). We are very grateful for the valuable comments of anonymous reviewers on previous versions of the manuscript.Sospedra, J.; Niencheski, LFH.; Falco, S.; Andrade, C.; Attisano, K.; Rodilla, M. (2018). Identifying the main sources of Silicate in coastal waters of the southern Gulf of Valencia (Western Mediterranean Sea). Oceanologia. 60(1):52-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceano.2017.07.004S526460

Obras del Pantano del Generalísimo en el Río Turia [Texto impreso]

Tít. en cub.: Pantano del Generalísimo en el Río Turi

Obras del Pantano del Generalísimo en el Río Turia [Texto impreso]

Tít. en cub.: Pantano del Generalísimo en el Río Turi

Canal del Ebro : resumen de los estudios realizados por la Comisión del Bajo Ebro (creada por O. M. de Octubre 1957) y por la Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar, para la redacción del "Anteproyecto General del Sistema de aprovechamiento de Aguas del Bajo Ebro"-Margen derecha-

INDICE: Antecedentes. Resumen del Estudio Agronómico.Consideraciones Generales.Zonas regables y necesidades de agua.Deducción del caudal máximo en la Estación Elevadora.Deducción de la Energía necesaria para el Plan.Regulación.Caudales y secciones de l os canales. Resumen y descripción del Plan.Presupuestos.Estudio e conómico. Plano General (Croquis del Plan Adoptado.Zonas regables de la Provlncia de Castellón por términos municipales)