The irrigation system of the northwest Murcia Region (Spain): robustness of SES to the intrusion of new resource users

Farmers in the northwest Murcia Region (Spain) have used for centuries the water from springs to irrigate their lands. They are organized in irrigation communities adapted to cope with rainfall variability. This system was robust in terms of its use of the water emerging from the springs to irrigate small patches of land. In recent decades, large agrarian companies have settled in this region and use groundwater to irrigate new lands. This intrusion had led the levels of this resource to drop sharply and forcing traditional farmers to adapt to an extreme situation of water scarcity. As a consequence, the structure and robustness of the traditional system have profoundly changed. Traditional farmers are trying to adapt by intensifying the use of resources and are constructing new physical infrastructures; consequently, new vulnerabilities are emerging.