Drought management in the Júcar river basin district
The Júcar case study examined a semi-arid basin in eastern Spain with chronic water scarcity and repeated multi-year droughts, and tested instruments the basin had not yet used.
- Region: the Júcar basin in eastern Spain, in the Valencia region
- Hazard: drought
- Period: drought episodes of 1985-1988, 1990-1995, 2000-2002 and 2005-2008
- Partners as printed: farmer (irrigation) organisations, Area metropolitana de Valencia, the City of Albacete, Iberdrola S.A. (hydropower), Xuquer Viu and ADIMAN, Ecologistas en Acción, the Confederación Hidrográfica del Júcar, USUJ, Hydrola power, and the Universitat Politècnica de València, with Joaquín Andreu Alvarez as contact
A semi-arid climate and heavy water use combine in the Júcar basin to produce chronic scarcity and droughts that last for years. Four such episodes between 1985 and 2008 shaped the study. The partner list shows how many users compete for the same water: irrigators, two cities, a hydropower company and environmental groups.
The impacts listed were wide:
- urban water supply and water quality;
- river and wetland ecosystems;
- agriculture and industry;
- cooling of a nuclear plant;
- desertification and wildfire.
The case study explored economic instruments that had not yet been used in the basin, together with public-private partnerships and regulation, as ways to improve drought resilience. The measures evaluated included technical and economic efficiency, combined use of conventional and non-conventional water sources, better monitoring and special drought plans.
The work built on earlier projects: WARSYP, SEDEMED, AQUAMONEY, GENESIS and DROUGHT R&SPI. A local drought assessment for the Júcar was one of the examples cited in the second Letter from Sendai. Another Valencian disaster, the flooding of October 2024, is covered in the Valencia 2024 case study, and the full set of cases is in the case-study atlas.