This project proposes to carry out simulations with long synthetic series generated using statistical methods and considering different hydrological scenarios (reductions due to climate change, increased irregularity, etc.), by analyzing the optimal management made by the simulation model.

This methodology will result in the simulated operation of the system in each year of the series, being necessary to establish relationships between some starting variables (basically stock and contributions) and the variables resulting from the operation of the system (withdrawals from wells and production of desalination plants).

Coastal lagoons are particularly vulnerable to eutrophication processes associated with different human activities taking place in surrounding areas.

On the other hand, coastal lagoons are widely considered one of the most fragile coastal environments due to the consequences of global climate change, especially rising temperatures, rising sea levels, hydrodynamic changes, change in the salinity and dissolved CO2 and increased frequency of extreme weather events.

The study will be carried out in the coastal lagoon of Mar Menor, located in southeastern Spain.

Its bed is almost entirely covered by the alga Caulerpa prolifera, while its water keeps under relatively oligotrophic conditions with low concentrations of phytoplankton, despite the recent increase in nutrient inputs resulting from agricultural intensification and increasing population on its shores.

The objective of the proposed work is to carry out joint legal research on international and European water law.

The aim is to acquire a global perspective of how it has faced and is now faced the regulation of water as a resource in different countries, especially in Europe, which have been the recent trends, and which experiences can be useful for the Spanish law.

In order to achieve the objectives it will be reviewed the current regulations and the most recent contributions existing in the field of international law and international relations on water as cooperation and conflict factor, taking into account aspects such as international water transfers, the international sale of water and other current issues of private international law community.

The objective of this proposed work is to carry out a far-reaching review of the different methodologies developed for the establishment of environmental flows in rivers in different countries, their advantages and disadvantages, in order to determine the most appropriate for application to rivers in the Mediterranean area. In order to do this, the different existing methodological approaches will be analized and assessed, as well as the experiences and available information, and we will propose an appropriate methodology for its use in rivers with hydroclimatic and ecological characteristics typical of the Mediterranean area.

The project seeks to characterize the drainage network of the Sierra Minera and its relation to existing mining waste sites, to evaluate the runoff and sediment production in these networks, to obtain the concentration of metals in barren marshes and streams, to determine the main material contributions, and to make proposals for action on risk minimization.

The objectives of the project are:

• Characterize the drainage of the Sierra Minera and its relation to existing mining waste deposits.

• Evaluate the production of runoff in watersheds in which sterile deposits are placed.

• Obtain measurements of sediment carried by the surface drainage network.

• Obtain concentration of metals in sterile marshes and streams.

• Determine, based on previous results, the wetlands that provide more material, and therefore higher concentrations of metals, to the water system.

• Develop proposals of actions to minimize the risks for health associated to runoff production in hazardous waste contaminated media.

This project aims to:

1. Establish a series of physical soil parameters, based on scientific criteria and objectives that characterize the environmental quality of soils in terms of their water and hydrodynamic properties.

2. Evaluation of the selected parametric indicators and determination of critical limits.

3. Mapping, at a sufficiently detailed scale, from data obtained from previous soil surveys.

4. Measure "in situ" and in laboratory, soil properties and physical parameters related to the water content and movement in soil of experimental plots established in pilot areas, which soil types are representative of the Segura basin.

5. Get correlations between the obtained results in experimental plots and data from the physical parameters set forth above.

6. Establish transfer functions to infer soil hydraulic properties from a statistical base of existing soil data.

7. Modeling the work methodology in order to extend it to other regions within the Mediterranean area.

This project seeks to develop a high resolution database on which to base our statistical studies.

The working tool to use is the MM5 regional atmospheric model, to which can be attached the soil model "Noah LSM" (Fei Chen and Jimy Dudhia, 2000) optimized for the target in the climate version developed by the group of atmospheric modeling. Attaching a soil model assumes that the moisture is not prescribed by weather and introduces eight new variables: four of humidity and four of temperature in both four soil layers of two meters deep, thus activating the existing feedback mechanisms between them and the atmospheric variables, and playing reasonably well the daily the flow of heat variations in the area and its seasonal evolution.

An atmospheric model integrates the differential equations describing the behavior of the atmosphere (the evolution of predictor variables) from their discretization (both spatial variables and time) and the domain of integration (which becomes in a three-dimensional grid). Although certain processes, because of their complexity and/or its chaotic nature (eg, formation of clusters, boundary layer processes...), are parameterized and are not described by physical laws, and it corresponds to the user to choose between one or other parameterization.

This project aims to know the actual pumping withdrawals of the aquifers in the Segura basin, particularly those declared overexploited, and the ground water reserves available, in order to estimate the remaining life of the aquifers facing different management scenarios.

In this research project it is also proposed to carry out a study of the actual cost of groundwater abstractions, depending on various concepts that include: depth of drilling, pumping height, equipment and materials prices, energy prices, efficiency of pumping equipment, etc. Moreover, it will be assessed the environmental costs associated with the exploitation of groundwater.

Once the components of groundwater extraction costs are characterized, it will be carried out the mapping of the cost of groundwater in major aquifers of the Segura river basin. This study will establish the characteristic parameters that affect the extraction costs, so that it can be estimated for each point of any aquifer.

The project has a historical and legal orientation and seeks to characterize the time evolution of the institutions of traditional law in the Kingdom of Murcia from the 13th to the 20th centuries recovering these rules and revealing them in a critical edition.

The objective of this project is to carry out the necessary tasks to make a critical edition of the rules on irrigation or traditional hydraulic systems of the ancient kingdom of Murcia. The project must contain at least three of the different traditional hydraulic systems Murcia, outside of the Huerta de Murcia (as this study has been done already), preferably at this stage: Cieza, Molina, Totana, Mula and Lorca. This is a project that fits into a broader framework that can be continued in successive phases.

This subject is scarcely or not known in the Region of Murcia despite its high significance. This project arises as a concern from the results of many previous projects financed by the European Commission, the Spanish National R&D&I Plans, and the Seneca Foundation of Murcia, made by the working group on desertification processes. This raises the need to understand the vital role that the springs have played in the folding and land uses in the Northwest Region of Murcia, linking its evolution to the behavior of rainfall data from the National Institute of Meteorology (Territorial Centre of Murcia) and the changes observed in the last fifty years in the area. In addition, we will try to identify the problem areas, to assess the importance of global change and the possibilities of achieving a sustainable development.