Aquifers Overexploitation in SE Spain: A Proposal for the Integrated Analysis of Water Management

Integrated water resources management is a paradigm that incorporates technical, scientific, political, legislative and organizational aspects of a water system. This study presents a methodology for undertaking an integrated analysis of water systems supplied by groundwater. This methodology is here applied to examine the water system of the Altiplano region in Murcia, where the water extraction from the aquifers greatly exceeds recharge and the irrigated areas supplied by those aquifers have a very high agrarian profitability. First, the hydrological problematic of the case study was conceptualized. Then, a sectorial study on each aspect related to the water management of the system was developed. As Bayesian Networks was the chosen technique for the integrated analysis, the information obtained by the sectorial studies was translated into specific variables, which together with the relations among them, modelled the real situation. As from a hydrogeological point of view the water system is comprised of four autonomous aquifers, a Bayesian Network for every aquifer was designed. This decision-support system enables us to evaluate the impacts generated under diverse water management scenarios.