Water from aquatic ecosystems, both surface and groundwater, provides essential services to society and enables the development of multiple economic activities. However, rapid socioeconomic development, increasing urbanization of the territory, and sustained population growth are leading to ever-higher water demand, often resulting in insufficient resource availability to meet existing needs. Furthermore, this decline is expected to be more intense in southern regions of Spain— a situation which, combined with growing needs associated with rising temperatures, creates an especially concerning scenario.

All these factors pose a serious threat to water security, understood as the guarantee of having the necessary resources to meet the needs of the population, economic activities, and continental aquatic ecosystems. In this regard, water security is strongly threatened by multiple causes that must be thoroughly analysed to promote integrated solutions that ensure equitable, sustainable, and fair use of water resources.

In this context, the H2OSEG project – Challenges of Water Scarcity in Achieving Water Security in Spain – was launched with the aim of thoroughly analysing existing risks that compromise water security, categorizing current water-related conflicts, modelling water availability and demand under different socioeconomic and climate change scenarios, and proposing alternatives to minimize the risks that threaten it. With a multidisciplinary and multi-scalar approach, the H2OSEG project aims to decisively advance toward a global and integrated understanding of the risks affecting water security, from diverse scientific perspectives, and to contribute new elements for the definition and resolution of water-related conflicts in Spain.

H2OSEG is a research project funded by the BBVA Foundation under the Prismas y Problemas program and coordinated by ICRA. The research team is composed of members from institutions with extensive experience in water resource studies, including: the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia-CSIC, the Institute of Environmental Diagnosis and Water Studies-CSIC, the Experimental Station of Arid Zones-CSIC, the University of the Basque Country, the IMDEA Water Institute, the University of Barcelona, the University of Cantabria, the University of Lleida, the University of Extremadura, the University of the Balearic Islands, the University Rovira i Virgili, and the University of Valencia.