Urban expansion and its impact on water security: The case of the Paraíba do Sul River Basin, São Paulo, Brazil.

Water supply sectors are facing higher uncertainty in both resource availability and consumer demand. Future conservation programs require a full understanding of underlying factors of residential water consumption. However, previous studies have only considered one or several groups of factors without putting them all together in a bigger picture. This study was developed to provide a comprehensive view on these determinants and their relationships, as well as to discuss current gaps and possible directions. Determinants are categorized into six groups: (1) Economic; (2) Socio-demographic; (3) Physical properties; (4) Technological; (5) Climatic; and (6) Spatial drivers. All these determinants produce a very complex picture with many possible interrelationships. This nature, in one hand, poses challenges in selecting suitable technique to avoid autocorrelation, but on the other hand, provides chances to substitute unavailable important data with proxy variables. We have emphasized the lack of regional and cultural diversity in current studies, as most of them were carried out in developed and arid areas. Hence, a wider range of country specific and local-based studies is needed to better reflect the determinants and their relationships in diverse contexts. In future studies, a broader assessment scope taking into account effects such as feedback loop, spillover, and rebound should also be considered. In addition, these studies must deal with modern issues such as balancing between smart monitoring device utilization and consumer privacy.

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A Review of Residential Water Consumption Determinants

This paper evaluates the response of streamflow in a Mediterranean medium-scaled basin under land-use and climate change scenarios and its plausible implication on the management of Boadella–Darnius reservoir (NE Spain). Land cover and climate change scenarios supposed over the next several decades were used to simulate reservoir inflow using the Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESsys) and to analyze the future impacts on water management (2021–2050). Results reveal a clear decrease in dam inflow (−34%) since the dam was operational from 1971 to 2013. The simulations obtained with RHESsys show a similar decrease (−31%) from 2021 to 2050. Considering the ecological minimum flow outlined by water authorities and the projected decrease in reservoir’s inflows, different water management strategies are needed to mitigate the effects of the expected climate change.

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The influence of climate and land-cover scenarios on dam management strategies in a high water pressure catchment in northeast spain

Tourism, and particularly residential tourism, has led to a change in the urban and demographic model of towns along the European Mediterranean coastline. Water as a resource limited and limiting for the growth of tourism is a popular topic in the scientific literature. However, the incorporation of non-conventional resources (desalination) has meant, in theory, that this limitation has been overcome. The aims of this paper are: (a) to identify the different tourism models existing in coastal towns in Alicante province and characterize them according to their water consumption from 2002–2017; and (b) analyse the hydrosocial cycle, highlighting the measures aimed at satisfying water demand and identifying the limitations related to these hydrosocial systems. To this end, different types of information have been processed, and various basic indicators have been analysed. The results revealed the increase in the resilience of this region to natural aridity and drought events. This was possible because the demand management and the use of desalinated water. However, this has generated other problems associated (energetics, environmental) due to maintenance of a non-sustainable territorial model based on an accelerated real estate development.

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The Hydrosocial Cycle in Coastal Tourist Destinations in Alicante, Spain: Increasing Resilience to Drought

Classifying land-use patterns by integrating time-series electricity data and high-spatial resolution remote sensing imagery

During the last decades on the Spanish Mediterranean coastline there has been a great development of low-density urban areas, as well as a change in the sociodemographic structures, especially in t...

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Rubén Alejandro Villar-Navascués

Papers

Factors Affecting Domestic Water Consumption on the Spanish Mediterranean Coastline