SCARCE - Assessing and predicting effects on water quantity and quality in Iberian rivers caused by global change

Water resources in Spain are subjected to rising pressures, related to the socioeconomic activities of an increasing human population, expressed by accelerated land use changes, and the specific climate characteristics of Mediterranean countries. The main panels on climate change predict a future scenario of increasing frequency of floods and extended droughts in the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in the Mediterranean basin. This will certainly add to the currently existing problems, and will probably affect the available water resources, their quality, the functioning of associated ecosystems, especially rivers and their aquifers, and the ecosystem services they provide.

SCARCE is a project that aims to describe and predict the relevance of global change impacts on water availability, water quality and ecosystem services in Mediterranean river basins of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as their impacts on the human society and economy. SCARCE will study different aspects of SEDIMENTS such as sediment transport dynamics, rivers´s morphosedimentary structure and physical habitat, comparison of sedimentary processes and chemical quality parameters under water scarcity.