water_resources

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Desertification Indicator System for Mediterranean Europe

The main issues associated with Mediterranean desertification

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Introduction

Table of indicators relating to water resources
Author: Anton Imeson 3DE@hetnet.nl

Based on the discussion of the issue of water resources and on a workshop session carried out by members of the DESERTLINKS project, we have attempted to structure the relationship of the indicators to the issue.

The water resources issue is divided into three themes:

what can be observed (or process or state dynamics);
reasons for what is observed (or factors influencing the issue or driving forces and pressures);
consequences of what is observed (or impacts and responses).

The different facets of each theme are given in sub-themes and indicators of direct relevance to measuring or monitoring are suggested. Some are also suggested as headline indicators which, if considered as a group, form a sub-set of indicators encapsulating the major processes in water resources (see also Combining and using indicators: Headline indicators).

Please note that the structure presented in the table below is open to discussion. It may not be comprehensive because it is restricted to the indicators currently in the DIS4ME database. Some indicators appear more than once because they relate to more than one theme. This structure is something we would like to develop further in the future.

Theme	Sub-theme	Indicators
What can be observed (process or state dynamics)	Changes in the availability of water resources	Waste water recycling (Headline) Water quality (Headline) Groundwater depth (change in) (Headline) Aquifer over exploitation (Headline) Effective precipitation (Headline)
Reasons for what is observed (influencing factors or driving forces and pressures)	Climatic conditions	Climate quality index Rainfall Rainfall seasonality Potential evapotranspiration Drought index
	Soil conditions	Soil quality index Infiltration capacity Rainfall-runoff relationship
	Changes in land use	Land use type Period of existing land use type Land use evolution Land abandoned from agriculture Area of marginal soil used Soil water conservation measures Vegetation cover Deforested Area
	Increase in urban water use	Tourism change Population density Demographic variation index
	Increase in irrigated agriculture	Irrigated area Cultivated area under subsidy Irrigation potential realised Irrigated UUA/dry UUA
	Things going on in the wider world	Water use policy/law Land Use Policy Policy enforcement EU production subsidies Internal resources mobilisation
Consequences of what is observed (or impacts and responses)	Intensification of agriculture	Expenditure on water Land use intensity
	Reduction in water reserves and quality	Groundwater depth (change in) Water quality
	Change in flooding frequency	Flooding frequency
	Farm income	Net farm income

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