Although desalination water cost and quality standards have been widely studied, less attention has been paid to understanding how desalination plant managers and irrigation communities interact to address water scarcity. This paper aims to approach these questions from experience in Alicante and Murcia (Spain). Two specific questionnaires have been applied to (1) three desalination plants managed by the Spanish public company ACUAMED, and (2) 11 irrigation communities who use desalinated seawater. Discursive analysis has been applied in order to deepen understanding on the driving factors, benefits, and barriers of desalination use and management. Results highlighted how (1) irrigation communities consider desalination as a complementary water source to be combined with conventional water resources, (2) both ACUAMED and irrigation communities highlighted two main advantages of desalination: the security/guarantee of supply and water quality parameters, and (3) managers and irrigators disagree on the desalination model of seawater provision and management, since irrigators consider that the Central Union of the Tajo-Segura transfer irrigators (SCRATS) should have a leading role. In addition, the main driving factors and barriers useful for policy makers when closing the gap of desalination have been identified: water price and energy consumption; lack of water storage capacity and regulation; environmental impacts.

Desalination for sustaining agricultural production is conceived as an alternative water source in some Mediterranean countries faced with climatological and hydrological constraints. Although high costs are often cited as limiting factors, how farmers discern desalinated water has not been discussed in-depth in the literature. This paper aims to deepen how desalination is perceived by irrigators, what driving factors are affecting irrigation communities’ decision-making processes, and what learnings can be drawn from their experiences regarding desalination acceptance or rejection. Eleven irrigation communities have been selected from Alicante and Murcia regions (South-East Spain), which account for more than 60,000 irrigators and 120,000 ha. Questionnaires were conducted between March and December 2019. Results highlighted the main advantages (water availability and supply security) and disadvantages (high price affecting profitable crop options, high-energy consumption, water quality standards, the production capacity of desalination plants, no seasonal variation in water production, and shortages due to technical problems) of using desalinated water. Additionally, through the analysis of regional and national press news, it can be concluded that socio-political aspects, such as corruption, cost overruns, and political disputes are also considered.

Water consumption continues to grow globally, and it is estimated that more than 160% of the total global water volume will be needed to satisfy the water requirements in ten years. In this context, non-conventional water resources are being considered to overcome water scarcity and reduce water conflicts between regions and sectors. A bibliometric analysis and literature review of 81 papers published between 2000 and 2020 focused on south-east Spain were conducted. The aim was to examine and re-think the benefits and concerns, and the inter-connections, of using reclaimed and desalinated water for agricultural and urban-tourist uses to address water scarcity and climate change impacts. Results highlight that: (1) water use, cost, quality, management, and perception are the main topics debated by both reclaimed and desalinated water users; (2) water governance schemes could be improved by including local stakeholders and water users in decision-making; and (3) rainwater is not recognized as a complementary option to increase water supply in semi-arid regions. Furthermore, the strengths–weaknesses–opportunities–threats (SWOT) analysis identifies complementary concerns such as acceptability and investment in reclaimed water, regulation (cost recovery principle), and environmental impacts of desalinated water.

Research interest in massive online and open courses (MOOCs) is rapidly growing, questioning who enrolls, why and how to conceive engagement, and success rates. This study is focused on MOOC-takers behavior obtained from a seven-week MOOC experience on natural risks. Data scraping principles have been used to collect data. Demographics, success-dropout rates, engagement periods, achievement and scoring, and behavior were analyzed through descriptive statistics, non-parametric correlation analysis, and statistical hypothesis testing. The results show that students who start earlier and those who finish earlier the course obtain better grades in some of the modules (motivation and background on natural risks could be the explanation). However, for ‘last moment students’, speed in passing the modules is either related to greater motivation, although in this case it is not related to better grades. Furthermore, students who complete tasks during the weekend take less time to complete the modules and obtain a better grade. In addition, a learning strategy is promoted by reconsidering who is learning: players (those who complete the course and earning a certificate), auditors (those who have completed a thematic unit or the whole module, earning partial knowledge), and spectators (those enrolled until the end of the course, who intend earning experience in e-learning).

During the last decades in the Spanish Mediterranean coastline there has been a great development of low density urban area, as well as a change of the sociodemographic structures, especially in the municipalities that have developed a residential tourism model. Likewise, urban and tourist development have stressed the balance between the availability of water resources and urban water demands, generating situations of scarcity which may be aggravated by climate change. This study identifies the determinants of water consumption in the Spanish Mediterranean coastline, focusing on the variables related to urban land uses, socioeconomic and sociodemographic variables at the municipal level using an ordinary least square (OLS) and a geographically weighted regression (GWR) model. The GWR model results substantially improved the results of the OLS model, explaining 88.27 percent of the variance in domestic water consumption and solving the spatial autocorrelation problem of some independent variables. The most influential variables include the percentage of second homes or the percentage of residential properties with swimming pools at municipal level. These characteristics must be considered to develop demand management policies and an updated water planning to ensure urban supply in a future with less available water resources.