Historias de amor y celos en la novela corta del siglo XVII

La novela corta nace a principios del siglo XVII, teniendo como principal escenario las grandes ciudades, lo que conlleva perspectivas como la erótica, la morisca, la de aventuras, entre otras. Característica fundamental de este tipo de relatos es la moralidad, concepto que los autores han adoptado de las preceptivas anteriores, como la Philosophia Antigua Poética de López Pinciano, las Tablas Poéticas de Cascales o El cisne de Apolo de Carvallo. Si aplicamos esta propiedad al siglo XVII, encontraremos un florilegio de relatos que lo tratan. Las novelas, tras las Ejemplares cervantinas, muestran una serie de aspectos negativos de la sociedad como reformadora para el pueblo, según postulan algunos seguidores de Cervantes. De acuerdo con estas coordenadas, entendemos que a diferencia de Boccaccio y con más transparencia pedagógica que el propio Cervantes, otros autores del XVII profundizan en sus colecciones en el problema de la moral de la obra de ficción, como por ejemplo, Francisco Lugo y Dávila con su Teatro popular. Novelas morales (1622) o Juan Pérez de Montalbán en su obra Sucesos y prodigios de amor (1624). El autor del Quijote sigue la línea de la novela italiana, en concreto, del Decamerón de Boccaccio, del que derivan los citados. Numerosos estudiosos del género no se han percatado de la escasa labor sobre los escritores menores de este tipo de novelas. Es por ello, que nuestra motivación se incline hacia el estudio de los relatos olvidados durante generaciones. Agreda y Vargas, en el prólogo a sus Novelas Morales, define la novela, como una narración útil. Lugo y Dávila se mueve en el sentido que la moralidad emana de su obra. No sólo guía al lector, sino la forma de pensar de los personajes principales, es decir, los oradores y emisores de sus historias. En este sentido, en las Novelas amorosas y ejemplares de María de Zayas translucen el concepto de verosimilitud, plasmando de forma real el conflicto entre el amor y los celos en sus historias. Teniendo en cuenta estas premisas, parece obvia la intención de los autores que partieron de la idea del Decameron boccacciano y de las Ejemplares cervantinas: mostrar que los personajes no permanecen anclados en costumbres pasadas y obsoletas, sino que sienten y padecen la realidad cotidiana. Apartan el concepto de la perfecta casada, abogando por el riesgo que conlleva el ser feliz. El perfil del amor cortés va desapareciendo para dar paso al sufrimiento o triunfo de la relación idílica. Los personajes anhelan encontrar el amor «verdadero» hasta que son conscientes de su inexistencia. Pero, no se rinden ante ello porque creen en el afecto. Por otra parte, se obsesionan con la idea de la posesión del cónyuge, lo que los conducen al fracaso amoroso. La mayoría de los autores –por no puntualizar que todos– que siguen la estela cervantina en cuanto a las historias de amor y celos, presentan en sus obras el desengaño amoroso, la frustración que genera una relación perdida y los celos provocados por el amor no correspondido

From Private Company to Water User Association and Natural Park over a Century: The Case of Riegos de Levante, Izquierda del Segura (Spain)

This work examines the transformations occurred with the shift from private company to water user association and natural park, looking at one collective irrigation system located in Alicante province (Spain): Riegos de Levante, Izquierda del Segura, one of the most extensive irrigation areas in Europe. Between 1918 and 2018, a process of change and transformation of both landscape and institutions occurred, considering: infrastructure expansion and its operation, the transfer of irrigation management responsibilities to water user association, after years of financial operations with water, thanks to state intervention, the coexistence of traditional agriculture with the modernisation of the irrigation systems, the history of an irrigation reservoir which was transformed into a natural site in 1988, or the evolution of the composition of water resources, taking into account the arrival of the Tajo-Segura transfer waters from the year 1979. The general objective is to understand key factors driving these changes, by means of a paradigmatic case study, as well as to identify policymaking and context-relevant dynamics that could enable it.This research was funded by the CampusHabitat5U network of excellence of Valencian public universities (https://iuaca.ua.es/es/campushabitat5u.html) and the Cátedra del Agua of the University of Alicante and the Diputación Provincial de Alicante (https://catedradelaguaua.org/)

Factors related to municipal costs of waste collection service in Spain

Actual cost of services of local entities (CESEL, in Spanish) is the name of a new official source of statistics in Spain, provided by Ministry of Finance and Civil Service, which intends to bring some transparency to a very obscure question: the real costs of local public services, in this case, the collection costs of municipal solid waste (MSW). The study analyzes the factors that determine solid waste collection costs in 2014, using a cross-sectional dataset of municipalities of the Spanish Mediterranean Arch and Madrid, with special reference to urban development. The results of the regression reveal a positive relation between waste collection costs and factors such as higher wages, coastal municipalities, tourist areas, population and separated collection; in contrast, the increase in urban population density contributes to lower costs of MSW collection, as well as indirect management of the service is cheaper than direct public delivery.This work was supported by the Office of the Vice President of Research and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Alicante (Patricia Fernández-Aracil has a scholarship for The Training of University Teachers from the University of Alicante) and by the University Institute of Water and Environmental Sciences of the University of Alicante

Drivers of Water Supply Costs in Mediterranean Spain

This work analyses the drivers of water supply costs relying on a panel data model within a sample of Spanish Mediterranean municipalities between 2014 and 2016, in the provinces of Alicante and Murcia. These provinces have been chosen due to their common feature: water scarcity in the Southeast of Spain. The source of the dependent variable of the econometric model (costs) is a new dataset called actual cost of services of local entities (CESEL, in Spanish), which is published by Ministry of Finance and Civil Service. This new source emerged in response to financial problems experienced by local entities after the global crisis. Bearing in mind the homogeneity of municipalities studied in terms of water management, selected drivers of the equation focus on urban growth and demographic factors. The findings show that urban variables, such as higher net urban density, have a significant impact on the decrease of water supply costs.This work was supported by the Office of the Vice President of Research and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Alicante (Patricia Fernández-Aracil has a scholarship for The Training of University Teachers from the University of Alicante) and by the University Institute of Water and Environmental Sciences of the University of Alicante

Assessing Water Shortage through a Balance Model among Transfers, Groundwater, Desalination, Wastewater Reuse, and Water Demands (SE Spain)

Currently, water demands are increasing notoriously, spreading the pressure on available water resources around the world in both quantity and quality. Similarly, the expected reduction of natural water inputs, due to climate change, depicts a new level of uncertainty. Specifically, Southeast Spain presents water scarcity due to its aridity—irregular and scarce precipitation and high evapotranspiration rates—combined with the competition between several water demands: environment, agricultural dynamics, urban-tourist activities, and industry. The study area of this work is the most relevant functional urban area of Alicante province (SE Spain), where the administration of water management is carried out by a range of authorities at different levels as the consequence of a complex historical development of water governance schemes: at the national, regional, and local levels. This study analyzes 21 municipalities and proposes a conceptual model which was developed by including different origins of water inputs—surface resources, groundwater, desalination, wastewater reuse, or interbasin transfers—and water demands with information obtained from 16 different sources. Our main results denote a relevant water deficit of 72.6 hm3/year even when one of the greatest rates of desalinated water and reused wastewater in Europe are identified here. This negative balance entails restrictions in urban development and agricultural growth. Thus, presented results are noteworthy for the water policy makers and planning authorities, by balancing the demand for water among various end users and providing a way for understanding water distribution in a context of scarcity and increasing demand, which will become one of the most challenging tasks in the 21st century.This research was funded partially by the project Life Empore (grant number: Life15 ENV/ES/000598) coordinated by the University Institute of Water and Environmental Sciences of the University of Alicante and by the project Asesoramiento y Asistencia Científico-Técnica en la elaboración del Plan de Acción Territorial de Alicante y Elche (grant number: UTECERCLEJORNET1-18ª) coordinated by the UTE Cercle & Jornet Llop Pastor companies and the University of Alicante. Antonio Jodar-Abellan acknowledges financial support received from the Spanish FPU scholarship for the training of university teachers. In the same way, this work has been conducted within the Cátedra del Agua of the University of Alicante (https://catedradelaguaua.org/)

Water distribution management in South-East Spain: A guaranteed system in a context of scarce resources

Growing global scarcity of water is forcing a change in their management models and the need to implement good governance schemes, understood as the implementation of legal, institutional and economic mechanisms that enable the efficient organisation of the activity developed by all of the agents involved in water management. In this sense, one of the greatest achievements in Spanish hydraulic history is the organisation called Mancomunidad de los Canales del Taibilla (MCT), whose existence usually goes unnoticed in one of the most arid regions of Europe: the South-East of Spain. Therefore, this study will analyse the MCT management model, based on the good governance of water, as well as their positive socio-economic impacts on population and areas supplied as a consequence of the quality and continuity of the urban supply, which has been extraordinarily beneficial for resolving health and hygiene and comfort problems. This is all thanks to the continual search for new sources of supply, in addition to efforts to improve leakage control, modernisation of management, educational campaigns implemented and the efficient and sustainable use of resources without financial unbalances.This work was supported by the Office of the Vice President of Research and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Alicante, Spain (Patricia Fernández-Aracil has a scholarship for The Training of University Teachers from the University of Alicante, FPU-UA-2014) and by the University Institute of Water and Environmental Sciences of the University of Alicante

Analysis and alternatives to alleviate water deficit in the Segura River Basin (2022-2027), South-east of Spain

En el sureste de España se sitúa la Demarcación Hidrográfica del Segura, afectada por un escenario de déficit estructural, como consecuencia de contar con una precipitación muy baja —la menor del continente— y que, ante los escenarios de cambio climático, puede agravarse durante los próximos años. Esta situación de escasez ha requerido la combinación de recursos de diversos orígenes, que pueden clasificarse en los naturales y los no convencionales, que intentan alcanzar en conjunto un grado satisfactorio de atención de las demandas, principalmente en las más importantes por su volumen, como son el regadío y el abastecimiento. El objetivo principal del presente estudio es el análisis detallado del déficit mediante la información recogida por la planificación hidrológica, identificando aquellas áreas donde se concentra esta anomalía y que coinciden en gran medida con las zonas regables del Trasvase Tajo-Segura. Como objetivo secundario, se plantean las alternativas que permitan la movilización de nuevos recursos que consigan aumentar la oferta actual, específicamente, aquellos procedentes de la desalinización. Para ello, será necesaria la ejecución de nuevas infraestructuras, que ya contempla la planificación actual, pero que pueden añadir nuevos condicionantes, esencialmente económicos, motivados por los sobrecostes sobre el ya elevado precio del agua desalinizada y que cuestionaría la viabilidad económica del sector agroalimentario dependiente de este insumo fundamental.The Segura River Basin is located in the South-east of Spain and is affected by a situation of structural deficit, due to a very low rainfall (the lowest on the continent). Given the climate change scenarios, this deficit could worsen over the coming years. This situation of scarcity has required the combination of resources from various sources, which can be classified as natural and non-conventional. This action constitutes an attempt to satisfactorily meet demands, mainly the most important due to their volume, such as irrigation and supply. The main objective of this study is the detailed analysis of the deficit based on the information collected in hydrological planning, identifying those areas where it is concentrated, which largely coincide with the irrigation areas of the Tajo-Segura Transfer. As a secondary objective, alternatives are proposed that allow the mobilization of new resources that are able to increase the current supply, specifically, those from desalination. For this, the execution of new infrastructure projects will be necessary, which is already contemplated in the current planning, but which may add new conditions, essentially economic, motivated by the extra costs on the already high price of desalinated water and which would question the economic viability of the dependent agri-food sector of this essential input.Esta investigación ha sido financiada por la Cátedra del Agua de la Universidad de Alicante-Diputación Provincial de Alicante y por la red de excelencia Campus Hábitat 5U