Study site description: Guadalentín Basin, Spain

Table of Contents

1. Responsible partner
2. General Information
3. Biophysical description
   1. Climate, geology and geomorphology
   2. Soil, vegetation and land use
   3. Land use change
   4. Groundwater, water transfers, and irrigation
4. Socio-economic description
   1. Demography and education
   2. Livelihood, migration, land conversion and land degradation
5. Institutional and political setting
6. Relevant stakeholders
7. Past and ongoing projects in the Guadalentín
   1. Previous assessments of erosion rates and land degradation
   2. Conceptual frameworks and model applications
8. References

Land use change

Land use and changes in land use are important drivers of land degradation. Land use affects land degradation through the surface cover protecting the soil, runoff generation, but also through specific land management such as ploughing, land levelling, irrigation, reforestation etc. It is however important to realise that many land use decisions are embedded in complex economic socio-cultural and political contexts.

The Guadalentín has seen important structural land use changes over the last centuries. An analysis of land use changes within the Guadalentín between approximately 1900, 1978, and the year 2000 showed that between 1900 and 1978 the main changes consisted of the conversion of dryland herbaceous cropland to shrubs, to dryland almonds, or to irrigated herbaceous crops (Rojo Serrano, 2003). In the same period there was a notable increase in irrigated land, and an increase in plantations of alpha grass (Stipa tenacissima) for the production of cellulose. Between 1978 and 2000 the dryland agriculture further decreased, while irrigated land and forest increased. Similarly, another study showed that in the year 1995 only 37% of the land was the same as in 1957 (Cammeraat and Imeson, 1999), and since then changes have continued rapidly.