The Mula stream, a tributary located in the southern part of the Segura River basin, possesses habitats and species of European interest for which it has been declared Special Area of Conservation (SAC) within the Natura 2000 network. However, strong agricultural pressures on the supercial and groundwater resources of the Mula stream are threatening its ecological state. A characterisation of the natural ow regime of the stream and its main tributaries was carried out to design environmental ow regimes (EFRs) and make the conservation of the ecosystem compatible with agricultural requirements. Natural hydrographs, based on daily data corresponding to pre-dam periods, showed a high inter-and intra-annual variability typical of Mediterranean streams, with high ows in autumn and spring and low ows in summer. After the construction of the La Cierva reservoir in the Mula stream, the ow regime has been progressively altered in parallel with the expansion of irrigated agriculture in the watershed. The current regime shows a signicant reduction in the magnitude of ows and a reversal of the seasonal pattern, with droughts during winter instead of summer months becoming more frequent and long-lasting. Different EFRs are presented for three conservation scenarios of natural ow regimes in wet, average and dry years. Once the environmental ows were subtracted from the natural ones, the available water resources for agriculture were clearly insufcient in all studied scenarios, which poses problems for the implementation of such environmental ows in this basin.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Belmar et al. (2010) studied this question.