IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v9y2020i8p269-d397474.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain

Author

Listed:
  • Jaime Martínez-Valderrama

    (Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio “Ramón Margalef”, Universidad de Alicante, Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain)

  • Emilio Guirado

    (Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio “Ramón Margalef”, Universidad de Alicante, Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain)

  • Fernando T. Maestre

    (Instituto Multidisciplinar para el Estudio del Medio “Ramón Margalef”, Universidad de Alicante, Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain
    Departamento de Ecología, Universidad de Alicante, Carretera de San Vicente del Raspeig s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Spain)

Abstract

From its origins, the concept of desertification has been controversial. The prevailing confusion between two desertification visions, one that considers it as the expansion of deserts and another that emphasizes its anthropogenic component, has been transferred to society. Here we illustrate misunderstandings about desertification using a very illustrative case from the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin (Almeria, Spain), where striking badlands that are often used as an image of desertification coexist with an intensive olive agriculture that is irreversibly deteriorating the only oasis in continental Europe (Los Molinos spring). The olive tree is a traditional Mediterranean dryland crop and until the 1950s only about 200 ha were irrigated in this area. However, the profitability of the crop has caused irrigation to expand to 4400 ha in the last two decades. The process of intensification has been reinforced giving way to super-intensive irrigation, which involves going from 210 to 1550 trees/ha, which in a few years already occupies more than 1500 ha. The effects on the water balance of the aquifer feeding these crops have been severe, and the flow of the Los Molinos spring has gone from more than 40 L/s for the period 1970–2000 to the current 7.28 L/s. Unraveling the mechanisms of land degradation and its main drivers are the first step to propose management actions to achieve a more sustainable use of resources and to combat desertification.

Suggested Citation

  • Jaime Martínez-Valderrama & Emilio Guirado & Fernando T. Maestre, 2020. "Unraveling Misunderstandings about Desertification: The Paradoxical Case of the Tabernas-Sorbas Basin in Southeast Spain," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-12, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:8:p:269-:d:397474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/8/269/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/9/8/269/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Geert Sterk & Jetse J. Stoorvogel, 2020. "Desertification–Scientific Versus Political Realities," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Melgar, J.C. & Mohamed, Y. & Navarro, C. & Parra, M.A. & Benlloch, M. & Fernández-Escobar, R., 2008. "Long-term growth and yield responses of olive trees to different irrigation regimes," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 95(8), pages 968-972, August.
    3. Ibáñez, Javier & Martínez-Valderrama, Jaime & Taguas, Encarnación V. & Gómez, José A., 2014. "Long-term implications of water erosion in olive-growing areas in southern Spain arising from a model-based integrated assessment at hillside scale," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 70-80.
    4. José A. Gómez & Juan Infante-Amate & Manuel González De Molina & Tom Vanwalleghem & Encarnación V. Taguas & Ignacio Lorite, 2014. "Olive Cultivation, its Impact on Soil Erosion and its Progression into Yield Impacts in Southern Spain in the Past as a Key to a Future of Increasing Climate Uncertainty," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-29, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Valera & Luis Bolonio & Abel La Calle & Eulalia Moreno, 2022. "Deployment of Solar Energy at the Expense of Conservation Sensitive Areas Precludes Its Classification as an Environmentally Sustainable Activity," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Shidong Liu & Jianjun Zhang & Jie Zhang & Zheng Li & Yuhuan Geng & Yiqiang Guo, 2021. "Assessing Controversial Desertification Prevention Policies in Ecologically Fragile and Deeply Impoverished Areas: A Case Study of Marginal Parts of the Taklimakan Desert, China," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-22, June.
    3. Salvati, Luca, 2023. "Two wrongs don't make a right: A multi-step decomposition of latent dimensions of sustainable development and desertification risk in Italy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    4. Getaneh Addis Tessema & Jean Poesen & Gert Verstraeten & Anton Van Rompaey & Jan van der Borg, 2021. "The Scenic Beauty of Geosites and Its Relation to Their Scientific Value and Geoscience Knowledge of Tourists: A Case Study from Southeastern Spain," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-27, April.
    5. José Luis Molina-Pardo & Emilio Rodríguez-Caballero & Miguel Cueto & Pablo Barranco & Manuel Sánchez-Robles & Azucena Laguía-Allué & Esther Giménez-Luque, 2021. "Effects of Agricultural Use on Endangered Plant Taxa in Spain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-25, November.
    6. Jaime Martínez-Valderrama & Javier Ibáñez Puerta, 2023. "System Dynamics Tools to Study Mediterranean Rangeland’s Sustainability," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, January.
    7. Albaladejo-García, José A. & Alcon, Francisco & Martínez-Carrasco, Federico & Martínez-Paz, José M., 2023. "Understanding socio-spatial perceptions and Badlands ecosystem services valuation. Is there any welfare in soil erosion?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Antonio Alberto Rodríguez Sousa & Jesús M. Barandica & Alejandro Rescia, 2019. "Ecological and Economic Sustainability in Olive Groves with Different Irrigation Management and Levels of Erosion: A Case Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(17), pages 1-20, August.
    2. Antonio Tomás Mozas-Calvache & Julio Antonio Calero González & Theo Guerra Dug & Tomas Manuel Fernández del Castillo, 2023. "Methodology for Determining Gully Widths in Multi-Temporal Studies in Olive Groves of Southern Spain," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-15, May.
    3. Pierantozzi, P. & Torres, M. & Tivani, M. & Contreras, C. & Gentili, L. & Parera, C. & Maestri, D., 2020. "Spring deficit irrigation in olive (cv. Genovesa) growing under arid continental climate: Effects on vegetative growth and productive parameters," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    4. Cuevas, Manuel & Martínez-Cartas, María Lourdes & Pérez-Villarejo, Luis & Hernández, Lucía & García-Martín, Juan Francisco & Sánchez, Sebastián, 2019. "Drying kinetics and effective water diffusivities in olive stone and olive-tree pruning," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 911-920.
    5. José A. Gómez & Lizardo Reyna-Bowen & Pilar Fernández Rebollo & María-Auxiliadora Soriano, 2022. "Comparison of Soil Organic Carbon Stocks Evolution in Two Olive Orchards with Different Planting Systems in Southern Spain," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-15, March.
    6. Antonio Alberto Rodríguez Sousa & Jesús M. Barandica & Pedro A. Aguilera & Alejandro J. Rescia, 2020. "Examining Potential Environmental Consequences of Climate Change and Other Driving Forces on the Sustainability of Spanish Olive Groves under a Socio-Ecological Approach," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-22, October.
    7. Ghrab, Mohamed & Gargouri, Kamel & Bentaher, Hatem & Chartzoulakis, Kostas & Ayadi, Mohamed & Ben Mimoun, Mehdi & Masmoudi, Mohamed Moncef & Ben Mechlia, Netij & Psarras, Georgios, 2013. "Water relations and yield of olive tree (cv. Chemlali) in response to partial root-zone drying (PRD) irrigation technique and salinity under arid climate," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 1-11.
    8. Salmoral, Gloria & Garrido, Alberto, 2015. "The Common Agricultural Policy as a driver of water quality changes: the case of the Guadalquivir River Basin (southern Spain)," Bio-based and Applied Economics Journal, Italian Association of Agricultural and Applied Economics (AIEAA), vol. 4(2), pages 1-21, August.
    9. Infante-Amate, Juan & Aguilera, Eduardo & Palmeri, Francesco & Guzmán, Gloria & Soto, David & García-Ruiz, Roberto & de Molina, Manuel González, 2018. "Land embodied in Spain’s biomass trade and consumption (1900–2008): Historical changes, drivers and impacts," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 493-502.
    10. Antonio López-Pintor & Javier Sanz-Cañada & Ernesto Salas & Alejandro J. Rescia, 2018. "Assessment of Agri-Environmental Externalities in Spanish Socio-Ecological Landscapes of Olive Groves," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-25, July.
    11. Jetse J. Stoorvogel & Vera L. Mulder, 2021. "A Comparison, Validation, and Evaluation of the S-world Global Soil Property Database," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
    12. López-Luque, R. & Reca, J. & Martínez, J., 2015. "Optimal design of a standalone direct pumping photovoltaic system for deficit irrigation of olive orchards," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 13-23.
    13. Salvati, Luca, 2023. "Two wrongs don't make a right: A multi-step decomposition of latent dimensions of sustainable development and desertification risk in Italy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    14. Tomasz Daszkiewicz, 2022. "Food Production in the Context of Global Developmental Challenges," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-11, June.
    15. Cerdà, A. & Rodrigo-Comino, J. & Giménez-Morera, A. & Novara, A. & Pulido, M. & Kapović-Solomun, M. & Keesstra, S.D., 2018. "Policies can help to apply successful strategies to control soil and water losses. The case of chipped pruned branches (CPB) in Mediterranean citrus plantations," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 734-745.
    16. Wattanai Onsamrarn & Natthapol Chittamart & Saowanuch Tawornpruek, 2020. "Performances of the WEPP and WaNuLCAS models on soil erosion simulation in a tropical hillslope, Thailand," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-20, November.
    17. Carmona-Torres, Carmen & Parra-López, Carlos & Hinojosa-Rodríguez, Ascensión & Sayadi, Samir, 2014. "Farm-level multifunctionality associated with farming techniques in olive growing: An integrated modeling approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 97-114.
    18. Adélia N. Nunes & João Pedro Gonçalves & Albano Figueiredo, 2023. "Soil Erosion in Extensive versus Intensive Land Uses in Areas Sensitive to Desertification: A Case Study in Beira Baixa, Portugal," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-15, August.
    19. Elena Brunori & Luca Salvati & Angela Antogiovanni & Rita Biasi, 2018. "Worrying about ‘Vertical Landscapes’: Terraced Olive Groves and Ecosystem Services in Marginal Land in Central Italy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-20, April.
    20. Trabelsi, Lina & Gargouri, Kamel & Ayadi, Mohamed & Mbadra, Chaker & Ben Nasr, Mohamed & Ben Mbarek, Hadda & Ghrab, Mohamed & Ben Ahmed, Gouta & Kammoun, Yasmine & Loukil, Emna & Maktouf, Sameh & Khli, 2022. "Impact of drought and salinity on olive potential yield, oil and fruit qualities (cv. Chemlali) in an arid climate," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:9:y:2020:i:8:p:269-:d:397474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.