Major Hydraulic Projects, Coalitions and Conflict. Seville’s Harbour and the Dredging of the Guadalquivir (Spain)

Abstract

Abstract:Major hydraulic projects have a long tradition in Spain and must be contextualised within the framework of the so-called "hydraulic paradigm", according to which demand must be met with a sustained increase in supply. These large projects, which include but are not limited to the construction of large reservoirs, share a series of characteristics: their implementation relies on state economic and ideological support, their socioeconomic impact tends to be overestimated, their cost tends to be underestimated, they are presented as politically neutral, and they are the source of socio-environmental conflict. In order to gain a better understanding of this, we analyse the conflict generated by the dredging of the Guadalquivir River (Proyecto de Mejora de Accesos Marítimos al Puerto de Sevilla-MAM), a project aimed at improving navigability and access to the harbour of Seville (Spain). This project has highlighted the tensions underlying decision-making processes which pitch hegemonic policy makers against the rest of the stakeholders, as well as the lack of integrative and adaptive perspectives, institutional transparency and effective participation of all stakeholders in hydraulic policies.

Evaluation of the First Year of Operational Sentinel-2A Data for Retrieval of Suspended Solids in Medium- to High-Turbidity Waters

“…This estuary presents several notable characteristics, including the largely protected estuary marshes forming part of the Doñana Natural and National Parks, which are a UNESCO-MAB Biosphere Reserve. The river between Sanlúcar de Barrameda and Seville is unique, being the only navigable river in Spain [42]. The estuary is strongly affected by human-related activities and has undergone rapid agricultural, fisheries, touristic, and anthropogenic developments, particularly in recent decades [43].…”

Understanding the governance of sustainability pathways: Hydraulic megaprojects, social-ecological traps, and power in networks of action situations

“…(2) water planning at the river basin level, including the achievement of the EU's Water Framework Directive (WFD) environmental targets, is a competence of the River Authority, which in practice translates into a direct responsibility for the sustainable governance of the estuary's SES (see also Vargas and Paneque 2015). This behavior prompted the following questions: why this seemingly irrational behavior or, even worst, foolishness?…”

“…It corresponds to a discursive mechanism operating from the political-economic context at national level, continuing to mobilize power and economies in a particular direction within regions relying on large public hydraulic infrastructure and irrigation agriculture. These two developments are seen as a panacea for economic prosperity, codifying the core ideas of "regenerationism", an intellectual movement that emerged in the early 20 th century to objectively explaining Spain's decline as a global economic and political power (see also Swyngedouw 1999;López-Gunn 2009;Font and Subirats 2010;Vargas and Paneque 2015;Kimmich and Villamayor 2019;Donadei 2020). Historically, the hydraulic discourse has played mainly a rhetorical role and acted as a utopian unifying symbol based on powerful logics (logos) and a capacity to appeal to emotion (pathos) .…”

“…Back to the IMAP megaproject, we argue that during 2000-2019 the River Authority oscillated between discursive and pragmatic power. Discursive power seemed to emanate inertially from the traditional approach to Water Planning and legislation in Spain (i.e., from institutional arrangements), which are currently aligned with the regenerationist focus on: increasing water provision (supply side) for different users through state interventionism in economic development planning and modernization; massive public funding of large hydraulic infrastructures; low concern for both water quality and hydrological system conditions; low water prices for final users under the assumptions of net returns on investments to national wealth; hegemony of technocratic elites and civil engineering corps; and the paradigm of nature as an object to be dominated and modified (Saurí and Del Moral 2001;Swyngedouw 2015;Vargas and Paneque 2015). This translated into an impossible compromise among SES governance, deep dredging, maximizing resource yield, regulating and streamlining irrigation activities all over the basin, and finally headwater reservoir control for efficient rice cultivation.…”

Coaliciones y conflictos alrededor de las cuestiones socioambientales: hacia visiones integradas e integradoras. El caso del estuario del Guadalquivir

“…Las actividades humanas han ido colonizando estas tierras a lo largo de su historia (sobre todo en los últimos dos siglos), generando unos espacios a menudo compartimentados entre sí. Los usos (tradicionales y no) desarrollados en el estuario son muchos y de carácter muy diversificado, y la coexistencia de todos ellos no ha estado exenta de conflictos (Vargas Molina & Paneque Salgado, 2015 Pero son la agricultura y la navegación los principales protagonistas del tradicional conflicto sobre la orientación de las actuaciones de las obras públicas en el Guadalquivir: por una parte, expandir los cultivos de regadío, y por otra, garantizar el caudal necesario para la navegación y mejorar el cauce navegable para potenciar el sector náutico. Aunque históricamente se revela nítida la relación de prioridad y el consiguiente desfase en el desarrollo de los sectores náutico y agrario a favor del primero (Del Moral Ituarte, 1991).…”