Spain’s Natural Resources: Climate, Water, and Environmental Challenges
**Deciduous Forest**
Deciduous forests are forests of deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the winter. They are typical of northern Spain, where hardwood forests such as beech and oak thrive.
**Desertification**
Desertification is the process that leads to a breakthrough in the area of desert soil misuse by inappropriate farming practices, resulting in the loss of vegetation. Currently, a wide area in the Peninsula is in danger of desertification, especially the southeast area: Almeria and Murcia.
**Maquia and Garrigue**
Maquia and garrigue are bush types that occur in areas with Mediterranean forests, usually due to bush degradation. Maquia is a tall, dense scrub and occurs in siliceous soils, while garrigue is low and sparse, occurring in calcareous soils.
**Landscape**
Landscape is the configuration of geographical facts about the territory, both physical and human. We should add to this the meaning attached by the community that inhabits it.
**Protected Landscape**
Protected landscapes are landscapes that have a natural interest, particularly biological or geological. They are declared protected by law. Example: Ruidera Lakes.
**River Regime**
River regime refers to the fluctuation in the volume of a river due to the different seasons. It indicates its influence throughout the year. It may be snowy, pluvial, or combined, depending on the input received. In Spain, most rivers have a rainfall regime.
**Diversion**
Diversion is the transfer of water from one river to another through artificial channels made by man. Example: Tajo-Segura.
**Landa**
Landa is the generic name given to the bush found in areas of hardwood forest, and it usually occurs in acid soils. We found that vegetation as a result of the degradation of the deciduous forest in the Cantabrian Coast.
**Greenhouse Effect**
The greenhouse effect is caused by air pollution, such as CO2 and methane. These gases let in solar radiation but prevent it from escaping into space, acting like the glass of a greenhouse, resulting in gradual warming.
**Acid Rain**
Acid rain occurs in areas contaminated by sulfur and nitrogen. When dissolved by rainwater, these substances transform into sulfuric acid and nitric acid, falling to the surface as rain and resulting in the deterioration of that surface.
**Natural Hazards**
Natural hazards are environmental features that threaten human welfare or life due to the catastrophic consequences they can produce.
The most frequent are:
- Geological hazards: Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, hillside movements, landslides, and rockfalls.
- Climatic hazards: Floods, droughts, and frost.
These risks have been addressed by building infrastructure and creating systems for prevention and surveillance.
**Water**
Although abundant on our planet, water is a limited resource because not all water is available or suitable for consumption. It remains essential for life. Spanish water comes from rivers, and less from lakes and aquifers.
**Factors Conditioning Water Resources**
- Climate: Rainfall is the source of their food.
- Relief and topography: Influence the organization of watersheds, erosion, and waterworks.
- Lithology: Rock type and its characteristics employ surface runoff (clay) or facilitate the infiltration of water (limestone).
- Vegetation: Reduces evaporation, protects against solar radiation.
- Humans: In a positive or negative way.
**Spanish Rivers: Conditioning Factors**
- Weather: Determines the absolute flow (quantity of water passing a given point, measured in liters per second) and the regular or irregular river regime. The coefficient is calculated by dividing the average annual maximum flow by the average annual minimum flow of at least 30 years. A result less than or equal to 3 means regularly. The scheme can be: snowy, pluvial, nivo-pluvial, or pluvio-nival.
- Relief and topography: Organize the watershed (area where water flows into a main river and its tributaries). A watershed basin is the set of watersheds that flow into the same sea (the tilting of the plateau means that 69% of the peninsular rivers discharge into the Atlantic). The slope increases erosion. Besides, the relief facilitates or hinders the waterworks.
**The Hydrographic Watersheds of the Peninsula**
- Cantabrian Slope: It has rivers with great erosive force, abundant and regular. Capable of producing electricity due to rugged topography.
- Atlantic Slope: It has long rivers, irregular regimes, forming gullies on the slopes.
- Mediterranean Slope: It has short rivers, except for the Ebro, with great erosive force and an irregular regime in the autumn and spring due to torrential rains. High floods abound in the streams, which are dry much of the year.
**Spanish Lakes and Wetlands**
- Lakes: There are a large number (2474), but they are small-scale and mostly seasonal.
- Types:
- Endogenous: Caused by internal forces of the Earth, such as tectonic or volcanic movements.
- Exogenous: Caused by external forces such as glacial erosion from the ice bucket.
- Types:
- Wetlands: Incorporating shallow water, sometimes disappearing in times of low water. Their great interest lies in serving as a stopping place for waterfowl in their annual migrations between Europe and Africa. Example: Tablas de Daimiel.
**Aquifers**
Aquifers are pockets of groundwater formed by the infiltration of water from precipitation. On the Peninsula, there are over 400, mainly in the Tertiary depressions, near rivers, and in the mountainous headwaters of major rivers.