Drought management in Spain

Drought management in Spain
July 8, Zaragoza 2008
Elisa Vargas
Directorate General for Water
Recent concerns at European level
•
The European Council (ES/PT) expresses importance of water scarcity
and droughts at European level (March 2006)
– Relevant effects on many European Countries: socio-economic and
environmental impacts
– The Council asks the CE to assess the problem
– Water Framework Directive (WFD) not fully addresses issues
•
Water Directors agree to create a Working Group within the Common
Implementation Strategy –CIS- of the WFD
– Group incorporated into the structure on December 2006 (previously
existing as a drafting group)
Expert Network co-leaded by FR/ES/IT
Organisation of
Common Implementation Strategy 2007-2009
Strategic Steering Group
“WFD and Hydromorphology”
Chair: DE, UK and Commission
Water Directors
Steering of implementation process
Chair: Presidency, Co-chair: Commission
Stakeholder Forum
“Water Scarcity and Droughts”
Chair: Commission
Expert Group – Chair: COM/FR/ES/IT
Strategic Steering Group
“WFD and Agriculture”
Strategic Co-ordination Group
Chair: FR, UK and Commission
Art. 21
Committee
Co-ordination of work programme
Chair: Commission
Drafting Group
“Objectives/Exemptions/
Economics”
Chair: Commission and DK
Working Group A
“Ecological Status”
Chair: JRC, DE and UK
Working Group D
“Reporting”
Working Group F
“Floods”
Chair: Commission, EEA and FR
Chair: Commission
"GIS” Expert Network
Working Group C
“Groundwater”
Working Group E
“Priority Substances”
Chair: Commission and AT
Chair: Commission
“Chemical Monitoring”
“Chemical Monitoring”
Stakeholders, NGO’s, Researchers, Experts, etc.
EC Communication to the Council and Parliament
Process
•
Published on 18 July 2007
– Lists possible measures to cope with water scarcity and
droughts (management measures mainly)
– Recommends Drought Management Plans Development
– Supports establishing a European Strategy
– Considers using European funds when suffering prolonged
droughts
– Proposes establishing a European Drought Observatory
DMP objectives
Technical report on “Drought Management Plan” (ES) drafted by Expert
Network (approved by European Water Directors on November 2007).
•Useful tool to elaborate Drought Management Plans (DMPs)
•Helps Member States to mitigate and prevent drought effects
•Provides technical recommendations to establish useful indicator systems
to declare drought status
•Establishes measures, in accordance with indicators status, consistent with
RBMP.
•Relates direct issues clearly affected by droughts (agriculture and
groundwater) and consider consequences of climate change
Limitation: common agreed indicators
Spanish DMPs general characteristics
Origins:
•Drought management in Spain: traditionally as an emergency
situation
•Previous laws/decrees: allowed for adoption of urgent measures
DMPs:
•Entities in charge: River Basin Authorities
•Legal Framework: Law 10/2001, of the Hydrological National Plan
and Directive 2000/60/CE –Art. 4.6•Objective: Establish hydrological indicator system that determines
the phenomenon status, to minimize environmental, social and
economic impacts of drought situations
•Placement within the planning process: It’s a specific plan
complementary to the River Basin Management Plans.
Indicators system
• Established based on different variables:
– Precipitation
– River inflows in natural regime
– Stored volume in surface reservoirs
– Piezometric levels in aquifers
• Indicators are weighted, validated with management systems
and historical series
• Indicators are assessed (historical value indicator) and
thresholds defined according to specificities of river basins
Hydrological status, global indicator system
April 2008
March 2008
May 2008
Mitigation drought measures
TYPES OF MITIGATION MEASURES
Indicator
1-0.5
Status
Normal
Pre-alert
Alert
Emergency
Planning
Informationcontrol
Conservation
Restrictions
Tactics
Emergency
Objective
Type of
measure
0.5-0.4 0.4-0.3 0.3-0.2 0.2-0.15 0.15-0.1
Strategic
0.1-0
Main Results of applying DMPs
• Approval of Plans published on the State’s Official Bulletin
(B.O.E.) of 23/03/2007
• DMP guidelines were applied during extreme situations
throughout 2007 in Spain
• Progressive measures according to the drought status were
used
• Water allocations decreased in most critical areas for
agricultural uses
• Main achievement: no public water supply was compromised,
and no restrictions were needed in this sector
Further work being developed on general water indicators:
essential for water planning
New water indicator system
•
Objectives :
– Determine useful indicators for water
management
– Analyze temporal and spatial aspects of
variables, useful for:
• River Basin Management Plans (WFD
objectives) development
• Decision-making
• Disseminate information to citizens
•
Data source for indicators: Water Information
System (SIA) established on January 2008
–
–
–
–
Integrated water system: internal and external data
sources.
Geographic viewer: external web portal, direct access
to the whole system’s information
Digital water book: public dissemination, generates
contents in real time from the data base
Will be soon linked to WISE
Scheme of the new water indicator system
Example at national and river basin level
Average of P series
1940-2005
Example at national and river basin level
Average P/PET 2005-2006
Example at national level
Dams in Spain
Future steps and conclusions
•
•
Important political and technical results on WS&D works
DMPs in Spain are proving to be effective tools to minimize socioeconomic drought impacts
•
Setting basis for selecting and developing key water quantitative
indicators (focus: water scarcity and droughts) and coordinating
authorities and data suppliers
– Need to agree on common indicators at EU level
– Importance of transferring experience to Mediterranean countries
•
Essential future link between SIA and WISE and other water
information systems (e.g. EMWIS)