Constraints to Drought Contingency Planning in Spain: The Hydraulic Paradigm and the Case of Seville

Abstract

Spain is at present equipped with an extensive hydraulic infrastructure, aimed at the correction of the temporal and spatial irregularity in the distribution of water resources. This infrastructure network, mainly focused on surface water, is embedded in a traditional hydraulic paradigm with technical, economic, socio-political and cultural implications. This traditional water management perspective tends to view droughts as a circumstantial expression of a chronic water deficit, resulting from the so called structural deficit between water demand and the current water regulation capacity. This conceptualisation of the risk of drought leads to the predominance of structural responses to this hazard, the lack of consideration of uncertainty in the assessment of the available resources and the neglect of crisis planning. It can therefore be considered as one of the main obstacles to the development of a proactive approach for the management of droughts. However, the water policy arena is currently very dynamic. This dynamism, which encompasses elements of both innovation and persistence of the traditional water paradigm, can be analysed through the example of the Seville water management system, characterised by a high risk of drought and the recent experience of several severe water crises.