Spain’s Water Resources: Resources and Claims
Water Resources and Claims Management in Spain
Item 3 – RESOURCES AND CLAIMS MANAGEMENT IN SPAIN:
GROUNDWATER AQUIFER O: underground layer where they accumulate infiltrated water in quantity, usually rocky waterproof.
INPUT: the total amount of water draining a watershed year.
Endorheic AREA: that area where the water is not dumped at sea, but in lakes, ponds or rivers. Is a closed basin, characteristic of offshore areas.
CAUCE: bed of a river and canal to carry water for land.
BASIN: surface water which will lead to the same river.
SHED: surface water which will result in the same sea or ocean.
FLOW: the volume of water that has a river at a given location (gaging station). It is expressed in cubic meters per second. Varies continuously used as average values. (Average daily flow, monthly, yearly).
ABSOLUTE FLOW: The total quantity of water evacuated by a river over a year (average for the past 30 years or more.) Is expressed in cubic meters m 3/seg.
MODULAR FLOW: the average value (at least the last thirty years) of annual flows (the annual average value) or monthly, expressed in m 3/seg.
Module = mean annual flow
FLOW ON or specific: it relates the modular flow with having km2 basin. Therefore divides the flow in liters per second from the catchment area km2.Se in liters / sec / km 2
MONTHLY RATE: the relationship between modular flow monthly and annual accounts for the behavior of the flow in that month for the annual average behavior.
Is calculated by dividing the average monthly flow (monthly module) by the average annual flow (year module).
Their values range from 0 to 3 (in this case in a month are very irregular and that its volume is three times the average). The regular months have a coefficient 1 (this is your monthly module).
CONSUMPTION AND WATER USE: There are consumptive uses that pose an actual loss of water because there is an extraction of this resource. Consumption in Spain is high for a country that has problems of aridity and irregular rainfall. In the twentieth century have increased the problems of urbanization, industrial development, intensive agriculture, increased standard of living etc.
FLOOD: It is an abnormal increase in river flow. For some authors would be more appropriate to speak of maxima.
WATERSHED: geographical area or area where runoff waters converge to a main drain, which is a river, lake or sea.
WASTEWATER: The set of operations that aim to purify the water used for drinking, domestic or industrial uses. Then discharged into the river basin or the sea.
DAM: large tank, similar to a lake where river water is stored, which is formed artificially by closing the mouth of a valley by a dike or a dam. The stored water is used for irrigation, urban water supply and electricity production.
DROUGHT: lowering of the river, which may eventually disappear. For some authors would be more appropriate to speak of minimal.
GLACIER: are masses of ice formed in the high mountainous areas by the accumulation of precipitation as snow. The current expansion is very small and is declining due to climate change.
IRREGULARITY: variations in river flow over a year or over several years. Irregularity coefficient, relating the maximum average flow with at least a period of time.
LAKE: mass of fresh or salt water, accumulated in poorer areas of the earth’s crust, formed by water stable and in some depth, and no communication with the open sea or ocean.