Governing groundwater, cultivating change: Rethinking irrigated agriculture. A combined analysis of interventions and agricultural practices to reverse groundwater depletion in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.

Sammanfattning

The safe and just Earth System Boundary for groundwater is transgressed in a quarter of aquifers in Spain, with irrigated agriculture being the largest driver of overexploitation. Guided by the Earth System Boundary Framework, this thesis studies interventions that reversed agricultural groundwater depletion. Through a systematic literature review, five such cases were identified. While aquifer abstractions were reduced in four cases, some of the demand for groundwater was always replaced by surface water; farmers are involved in governance processes in at least four cases. Interconnections between groundwater interventions and the surface water boundary were identified. Through field work in Castilla-La Mancha, Spain the six barriers unfamiliarity, unsuitability for the crops or land, unsuitability for the region or climate, high costs, limited time and economic loss and the three enablers abstraction limitation, ecological values and cost savings were identified for the implementation of water-saving agricultural practices, influenced by broader institutional settings.