Living Lab on improving groundwater governance in the Requena-Utiel aquifer

Resumen del trabajo presentado en el 7th IAHR Europe Congress, celebrado en Atenas (Grecia) del 07 al 09 de septiembre de 2022.The European research projects InTheMED and eGROUNDWATER share the aim of promoting innovative and sustainable management of the Mediterranean aquifers. One of the ways to achieve this objective is the creation of dynamic spaces in which all interested actors can cooperate, experiment and evaluate innovative ideas, different scenarios and new technologies on real cases of interest. In this regard, a living lab on improving groundwater governance, coordinated by the eGROUNDWATER team with the participation of the InTheMED team, was organized including all stakeholders who play a significant role in the management of the Requena-Utiel aquifer, which is a shared pilot site of the two projects. The aim of the living lab was to identify, together with stakeholders, problems and mitigation measures, and to evaluate possible strategies to satisfy the individual needs according to a sustainable use of the groundwater resources.Research financed by the InTheMED project, which is part of the PRIMA Programme supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (GA n. 1923). It has also received funding from the eGROUNDWATER project (GA n. 1921), part of the PRIMA programme supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

Multi-stakeholder participation in the diagnosis and measures of the Requena-Utiel groundwater body towards sustainability transition, Valencia, Spain

Trabajo presentado en Sustain Valencia 2022. Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Management: Promising Directions and Unresolved Challenges, celebrado en Valencia (España) del 06 al 08 de octubre de 2022.The academic community focused on water governance is claiming that greater innovation is needed towards sustainability transition. Several participatory processes and methodological frameworks have been implemented under different approaches. There have also been highly appreciated adaptation approaches based on coproduction of knowledge, alternative scenarios and bottom-up formulas. In particular, groundwater management and governance measures related to top-down policies have been identified as a key issue. Recognising the global overexploitation of aquifers, the academia blames these inefficient top-down policies, both in the World and in the case of Spain. To improve the scientific evidence on this matter, this piece of research work has the aim to analyse the Requena-Utiel groundwater body through the lens of a plurality of actors involved in this aquifer of the Júcar River Basin in the province of Valencia in Spain