Expósito et al. (2026) Water Efficiency Targets at the Basin Scale: Useful Guide or Policy Trap?

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Water Resources Management
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-08-26
• Authors: Alfonso Expósito, Carlos Gutiérrez‐Martín, Fernando Delgado-Ramos, Julio Berbel
• DOI: 10.1007/s11269-026-04836-4

Research Groups

• Hydrology Group, University of Seville
• Water Resources Department, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

Short Summary

This study applies a hydro-economic model to assess the impact of on-farm efficiency improvements on basin-wide water savings in the Guadalquivir River Basin, southern Spain. The results show that targeting basin-wide water-use efficiency is complex and limited by multiple factors.

Objective

• Investigate how local water-use efficiency improvements translate to basin-scale outcomes

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: River basin scale (Guadalquivir River Basin)
• Temporal Scale: Long-term (annual) scale

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Hydro-economic model
• Data sources: Real data from the Guadalquivir River Basin, including on-farm water use and return flows

Main Results

• Increases in on-farm efficiency do not necessarily generate basin-wide water savings due to reuse of return flows and hydrological interdependence between upstream and downstream users.
• Targeting basin-wide water-use efficiency is a complex issue affected by multiple aspects (environmental, socio-economic, legal, technical, and political).

Contributions

• This study highlights the limitations of targeting basin-wide water-use efficiency as a policy tool for guiding water management decisions.

Funding

• This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (PID2019-105644GB-I00) and the European Regional Development Fund.

Citation

@article{Expósito2026Water,
  author = {Expósito, Alfonso and Gutiérrez‐Martín, Carlos and Delgado-Ramos, Fernando and Berbel, Julio},
  title = {Water Efficiency Targets at the Basin Scale: Useful Guide or Policy Trap?},
  journal = {Water Resources Management},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1007/s11269-026-04836-4},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-026-04836-4}
}