9.4 Land and water management
In general terms, almost all the lagoons are public ownership and public management, except some Atlantic lagoons (10 percent) and the Ebro delta (18 percent), where areas are also private property and other privately managed.
On this point, it is important to examine the role of water management in the lagoons with regard to their sustainability and protection. In most cases, almost all wetlands examined have some kind of environmental protection, however these places are not always available for use and management plans.
These plans are essential for an integrated management of the lagoons, as in addition to protection they are important to take the resources and their use into account, and all this is closely related to the type of property and the system management.
In lagoons where water management is performed through private gates, the rate of renewal is quite high. At the end, the management of land and water in the lagoons is an important aspect for achieving sustainability of the lagoons, and for proper water management it is necessary to provide intervention plans and being responsible for these.
The management of water will depend heavily on the maintenance work and hydraulic performances that are made. However, when these proceedings depend on public statements, the maintenance of the lagoons tends to be minimal, while if a private party is involved in the management, interests are different and the level of action to the maintenance of the lagoon much higher.
Hydraulic works and maintenance of these zones is essential for lagoon sustainability, and regardless of who owns or whom the responsibility to preserve and maintain the lagoons is on, a plan of action should be referred to and followed. However, these types of measures are rarely present in the Spanish Mediterranean lagoons.
All this is linked to the activities carried out in the lagoons surroundings and to the priorities in economic management. Thus, in areas where agriculture plays a large role in the local economy, water management is closely related to this activity, such as the Ebro delta, the Albufera of Valencia or the Albufera de Mallorca.
It is important to emphasize that when there is a lack of water management in a lagoon, the contribution of fisheries for the local economy is minimum, while in lagoons with handling of water (normally associated to private management), the quality of the aquatic environment and the quantity of fish resources is much greater. This occurs mainly in Ebro delta and in Atlantic lagoons with Mediterranean influence, especially Bay of Cadiz.
Therefore, lagoon quality is a limiting factor for fisheries productivity; hence water management becomes a priority for the local communities that live around the lagoons. The Mar Menor is in an intermediate position, where water management in the lagoon only depends on meteorological and oceanographic conditions.
However, in general terms, there are a number of risk factors linked with the management in Spanish lagoons, generally related to the habitats that affect animal communities (Ramsar, 2012), such as:
• Tourism caused the transformation of natural areas into urban areas, often with no good planning;
• Agriculture activities need space and sometimes cause the land desiccation; • The creation of industrial zones have seriously affected, among other factors, coastal dynamics;
• Water pollution from urban and industrial waste and shipping;
• Drying and transformation of marshes and salt marshes; and
• Construction of communication routes that have encouraged silting.