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

Demography and education

The population density of the Guadalentín basin is highly diverse since there is large variation between rural areas and some medium sized cities within the catchment (e.g. Murcia and Lorca). Population density ranges between 5 and 50 persons per square kilometre for the rural areas and about 472 persons per square kilometre for the municipality of Murcia, the main city in the catchment. For the region of Murcia, there has been a continuous increase in the total population. However, there is a large difference between rural areas and cities within the region. For the rural areas of the region an important decrease in population is observed in the 1930s and between the 1960s- 1970s (CREM, 2008).

Regarding education level, about 4.5 percent of the total population above 10 years old is illiterate. However, this number is strongly influenced by people over 50 years, since in the age group between 10 and 14 years only 0.24 percent of the population is illiterate (CREM, 2008).