Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain
From its origins, the concept of desertification has been controversial. The prevailing confusion between two desertification visions, one that considers it as the expansion of deserts and another that emphasizes its anthropogenic component, has been transferred to society. Here we illustrate misund...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI
2020
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10835/8419 |
| _version_ | 1789406692503453696 |
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| author | Martínez Valderrama, Jaime Guirado, Emilio Maestre, Fernando T. |
| author_facet | Martínez Valderrama, Jaime Guirado, Emilio Maestre, Fernando T. |
| author_sort | Martínez Valderrama, Jaime |
| collection | DSpace |
| description | From its origins, the concept of desertification has been controversial. The prevailing confusion between two desertification visions, one that considers it as the expansion of deserts and another that emphasizes its anthropogenic component, has been transferred to society. Here we illustrate misunderstandings about desertification using a very illustrative case from the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin (Almeria, Spain), where striking badlands that are often used as an image of desertification coexist with an intensive olive agriculture that is irreversibly deteriorating the only oasis in continental Europe (Los Molinos spring). The olive tree is a traditional Mediterranean dryland crop and until the 1950s only about 200 ha were irrigated in this area. However, the profitability of the crop has caused irrigation to expand to 4400 ha in the last two decades. The process of intensification has been reinforced giving way to super-intensive irrigation, which involves going from 210 to 1550 trees/ha, which in a few years already occupies more than 1500 ha. The effects on the water balance of the aquifer feeding these crops have been severe, and the flow of the Los Molinos spring has gone from more than 40 L/s for the period 1970–2000 to the current 7.28 L/s. Unraveling the mechanisms of land degradation and its main drivers are the first step to propose management actions to achieve a more sustainable use of resources and to combat desertification. |
| format | info:eu-repo/semantics/article |
| id | oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-8419 |
| institution | Universidad de Cuenca |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | MDPI |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oai:repositorio.ual.es:10835-84192023-04-12T19:00:31Z Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain Martínez Valderrama, Jaime Guirado, Emilio Maestre, Fernando T. desertification groundwater irrigation olive groves southern Europe From its origins, the concept of desertification has been controversial. The prevailing confusion between two desertification visions, one that considers it as the expansion of deserts and another that emphasizes its anthropogenic component, has been transferred to society. Here we illustrate misunderstandings about desertification using a very illustrative case from the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin (Almeria, Spain), where striking badlands that are often used as an image of desertification coexist with an intensive olive agriculture that is irreversibly deteriorating the only oasis in continental Europe (Los Molinos spring). The olive tree is a traditional Mediterranean dryland crop and until the 1950s only about 200 ha were irrigated in this area. However, the profitability of the crop has caused irrigation to expand to 4400 ha in the last two decades. The process of intensification has been reinforced giving way to super-intensive irrigation, which involves going from 210 to 1550 trees/ha, which in a few years already occupies more than 1500 ha. The effects on the water balance of the aquifer feeding these crops have been severe, and the flow of the Los Molinos spring has gone from more than 40 L/s for the period 1970–2000 to the current 7.28 L/s. Unraveling the mechanisms of land degradation and its main drivers are the first step to propose management actions to achieve a more sustainable use of resources and to combat desertification. 2020-09-02T11:06:00Z 2020-09-02T11:06:00Z 2020-08-11 info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2073-445X http://hdl.handle.net/10835/8419 en https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/8/269 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internacional http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess MDPI |
| spellingShingle | desertification groundwater irrigation olive groves southern Europe Martínez Valderrama, Jaime Guirado, Emilio Maestre, Fernando T. Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain |
| title | Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain |
| title_full | Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain |
| title_fullStr | Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain |
| title_full_unstemmed | Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain |
| title_short | Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain |
| title_sort | unraveling misunderstandings about desertification: the paradoxical case of the tabernas-sorbas basin in southeast spain |
| topic | desertification groundwater irrigation olive groves southern Europe |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/10835/8419 |
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