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Descripción
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| Conflicts between irrigation-based economic development and nature conservation are widespread throughout arid and semiarid regions worldwide. Balancing the trade-off between water for food and water for nature is at the core of many public debates . In case of ground water, conflicts have become more significant wherever there has been a synchronism between groundwater-dependent human development and the awakening of an environmental awareness in society. Spain¿s upper Guadiana basin in the arid south-central plateau provides an example of such an occurrence. Intensive ground water mining for irrigation has caused exhaustion of the aquifers and degradation of the nearby wetlands, which has given rise to noteworthy social conflicts over the years. Uncertainties feature high in the basin¿s water management practices and the new modes of water management, advocated by the EU Water Framework Directive, will have to deal with these uncertainties. Yet, one of the cornerstones of the WDF principles is public participation and strong stakeholder involvement. In this context, this paper dwells on explaining and analyzing the experience of a four-year implementation of a public participation forum that has gathered the basin¿s key stakeholders. The forum includes a participatory modeling approach that has served the purpose of identifying the key drivers for change in the basin and developing coherent stakeholder-driven water management scenarios to be tested by the models. The models, validated along the stakeholder participatory process, have permitted to analyze the capacity of the different policy options to respond to the societal needs of socio-economic development and ecosystems¿ conservation. | |
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Internacional
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Si |
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ISSN o ISBN
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http://www.openmeeting2009.org/index.html |
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Entidad relacionada
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The International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change |
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Nacionalidad Entidad
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ALEMANIA |
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Lugar del congreso
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Bonn |