Johannes Hunink

Back in Spain, Cartagena. The Technical University of Cartagena accommodates my work now, with still a strong link with FutureWater.  I´m currently involved in the following two EU-funded research projects:

• REDSIM (Remote-sensing based Dss for Sustainable drought-adapted Irrigation Management),  funded by EU DG Environment, period 2010-2011. Outcomes of REDSIM  will feed into the EU Policy Review of the Strategy for Water Scarcity and Droughts, which will be integrated in a “Blueprint to safeguard European waters”, to be finalised by the end of 2012.
• SIRRIMED (Sustainable Use of Irrigation Water in the Mediterranean Region) – a EU FP7 project, 2010-2013. My principal contribution goes to two work packages that aim at delivering information systems and know-how for irrigation districts and regional water authorities.

FutureWater will be organizing a course on “Application of Public Domain Models for Water, Food and Climate Studies”, in Wageningen, Netherlands, this summer. This course is geared towards water professionals working in developed and developing countries. The course will cover the essentials of hydrology, crop growth and climate change modeling concepts to support decision making and hands-on exercises to become familiar with the models. The lectures and exercises do not require extensive modeling background. More experienced professionals will have the opportunity to work with their own data during the exercises. More in brochure.

During the yearly event on water engineering in Madrid,  this [Spanish] report was presented on the groundwater management plan of an aquifer with large withdrawals for industrial and urban use close to Barcelona. We used Modflow for the modelling work. The report emphasizes the role of the aquifer as a regulating natural reservoir.

If you’re interested in Spanish hydro-politics and history, have a look at the article called “Agua para todos”: The new regionalist hydraulic paradigm in Spain” by Elena Lopez-Gunn (Computense University of Madrid). It can be found in the open-access journal Water Alternatives. Most of the current (October 2009) issue of  is devoted to Hydraulic Bureaucracies: Flows of Water, Flows of Power. You can download the paper for free: it concerns a very thorough and balanced review on water management in Spain. Highly recommendable.

“Spain is nowadays a hotbed of experimentation in terms of water policy along territorial lines, where strong innovations are taking place in terms of a highly dynamic and innovative regulatory system, of policy principles, and coordination/negotiations across scales (EU, national and regional). The value of water becomes embroiled in a political territorial process of negotiation over access to water, and conflicting relationships between scales (regional versus state) and uses (traditional farming versus intensive productive farming; rural versus urban; old uses like agriculture versus new uses like golf courses) and resources (old water versus new water and water transfers versus desalinated and recycled water), in new and constantly negotiated spatial water configurations.”

I´m leaving Spain, at least for a while: after 5 years turning back to the Netherlands. Of course, my eyes keep focused on this fascinating country which has much more to offer than sun, beaches and fiesta. Spain is a country with a large history in water management and the struggle for water resulted in innovative solutions going back to the Roman and Arabic period. Read the rest of this entry »

I started working for the research-based consulting company FutureWater.  I’m excited as it will allow me to work together with people from universities, research institutes and basin organizations: combining science with practical solutions. Just what I searched for. For the moment I’m still living in Barcelona, working on a project in Africa and on some opportunities here in Spain.

Si tienes interés en colaborar con una empresa que se dedica a proyectos punteros de investigación y consultoría, y relacionados con la gestión de agua, hidrología, sequia, cambio climático, etc, no dudes en contactarme.

About 5% of the drinking water for the Barcelona district comes from groundwater resources. In some areas significant amounts of water are pumped up for industrial and agricultural purposes. This is for example the case in the largest internal catchment of Catalonia that belongs to the fully reservoir-controlled Llobregat river. Currently I’m working on a groundwater management plan for the Catalonian Water Agency of a highly industrialized area in this catchment with increasing future demands. The main purpose of this plan is to provide a planning and regulatory framework that aims to ensure the allocation and use of the available groundwater resources.

Within 50 years there won’t be any glacier left in the Pyrenees: this showed a study published recently in the scientific journal The Holocene and carried out by a team of researchers from three Spanish universities. Still 21 glaciers are present these days, 10 of them on the Spanish side of the mountain range. However, in 2050 it seems that they will all have been disappeared. Less snow means less snowmelt in spring. In Spain this implies less runoff flowing to the water reservoirs and thus less drinking and irrigation water available in summer. Read the rest of this entry »