Groundwater in Spain: increasing role, evolution, present and future

For many years there has been a general consensus on the need to consider surface and groundwater together to achieve the more general paradigm of integrated water resource management. Nevertheless, in many countries this goal is far from being achieved in practice as in Spain, presented here. Much of continental and insular Spain conditions are semi-arid, making it the most arid country in the European Union (EU). The use of groundwater for urban water supply and irrigation is therefore relevant, especially along the Mediterranean coast, the south and the center, and in the islands. There is however divergence between the reality of groundwater use and the attitude of many policy makers who do not consider it and favor other water resources, traditionally surface water and recently seawater desalination, in many parts of Spain. This mindset of the governmental water planners influenced the 1985 water code and also affected the implementation in Spain of the EU Water Framework Directive 2000. Although some improvements have been made, overall groundwater management is still chaotic in some aspects. A significant handicap is that although in theory groundwater is in the public domain, most of it remains in private hands. Water planning also relies on concessions and this creates stressful situations and problems which are difficult to solve. In this paper some significant aspects of groundwater policy are outlined, such as its role in mitigating the effects of climate variability and change, the water mining of aquifers, the associations of groundwater users, and the groundwater ecosystems.