The Irrigation System of Sol y Arena, Campo de Dalías, Almeria, Spain

The Sol y Arena Irrigation system is one of the six irrigation systems (the most irrigated one) of the agricultural area of Campo de Dalías, which is located in Almería, Spain. It encompasses a geographical area of 6,000 ha. The case study involves an analysis of the evolution of the system in different stages: from 1953 in which the system was created to the date of the research in 2000. The authors catalogue an action situation involving 4095 users, of which only 2,952 are from the community. The resource unit is mainly water from groundwater, but sometimes they use surface water from the Benínar reservoir.

The original case study authors focused on how human-made hard and soft infrastructure have being catching up with the challenges that the natural and social infrastructure present. The case study has subsequently been used in comparative analyses regarding Ostrom's Design Principles (see bibliography).