Economic issues in the integrated management of water resource model (IWRM) and the management unit in a territory affected by several basins: The case of the Spanish southeast

Abstract

The International Water Association bets in its integrated management of water resource model (IWRM) toolbox for a management unit that covers the watershed. However, this point is debatable as there are models of IWRM implementation at the infra-basin level, or even, as in the case we present with this work, when there are several basins that interfere with a particular territory. The problems as- sociated with the confluence of two or more basins in the same territory go through the difficulties in the management of the different resources and their allocation between different uses, especially when the resources are scarce to meet the total demands of water, which occurs in the areas of South-east Spain. Here, global demands are trying to articulate within two deficit basins (the Júcar and the Segura), with external contributions from the Tajo Basin (Tajo-Segura Transfer) and with non-conventional resources from the desalination of seawater. We will try to expose the state of the art at this time, and the alternatives that arise from an economic point of view. Attempts to solve this situation come from far away, even though on many occasions, the economic aspects have not been taken into account, giving rise to investment processes in infrastructures that, due to their costs and the refusal of the users to face them, have generated unstable equilibriums that different governments are incapable to solve.