Low rainfall and high temperatures are the natural cocktail that evaporates water and hinders the growth of vegetation in the area. This is known as drought, which in Spain extends over two-thirds of its total territory. If human intervention that overexploits natural resources, with a particular impact on fresh water, is added to this mix, it turns into desertification, one of the country’s worst environmental nightmares. The first Atlas of Desertification in Spain (ADE), coordinated by specialists from the University of Alicante (UA) and the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), and presented on Thursday in Alicante, indicates that 206,217 square kilometers of the country suffer from this type of degradation that leads to the complete loss of soil useful for the environment and agriculture, representing 60.9% of arid areas and 40.9% of the entire Spanish territory.
This latest percentage represents double what was reached in the last official estimate of desertification. As explained in this scientific work, this is because the new atlas is concerned not only with soil conditions, but also with water resources. Therefore, an area that appears to be in good condition can here be considered degraded due to groundwater deterioration.
Although this is a widespread evil in the country, according to this atlas, desertification reaches alarming proportions in provinces such as Murcia (91%), Albacete (84%), Almeria (84%), Las Palmas (81%), Valladolid (79%), Alicante (79%); Valencia (71%); Zaragoza (71%) or Toledo (70%).
More than 40 experts participate in this scientific work, and it highlights the urgency of “one of the most important environmental challenges facing our country in the coming decades,” according to its authors. It is 360 illustrated pages with 66 maps, presented today at the headquarters of the University of Ciudad de Alicante. The edition was headed by Jorge Olsina, professor of regional geographic analysis at the UA, and Jaime Martínez Valderrama, a scientist at CSIC’s Arid Zones Experimental Station. In his opinion, desertification is one of the country’s major environmental problems and is progressing unchecked. The seriousness of the situation and its gradual colonization of a large part of the territory of the peninsula and islands are exacerbated by climate change and the unsustainable use of natural resources. “Mapping this complex process and the different variables involved is the first step to designing effective solutions,” they say. Ironically, the difficulty of visualizing this phenomenon makes it extremely difficult to map. In fact, the latest Global Atlas of Desertification issued in 2008 does not include maps, due to methodological difficulties.
One of the main efforts of Valderrama and Olsina was to disabuse the citizen of the idea that camel-riding caravans of nomads would travel across the sand dunes of the future Spanish Sahara. “The desert is a natural formation,” Valderrama explains, the result of centuries of no rainfall and extremely high temperatures. It is so extreme that no one will take it seriously because it is exaggerated. ADE shows that human intervention is what opens the door to soil fertility loss. According to the authors, there may be deserts affected by desertification. Degradation is the daughter of humans. According to the Atlas, a project supported by the Ministry of Environmental Transition and funded by European funds, more than 80% of available freshwater resources are consumed in 42% of the land. A similar proportion of groundwater masses is degraded, with levels such as 86% of the aquifers in the Guadiana Basin becoming desertified.
ADE directly points to agriculture as the major user of water and a critical factor in soil degradation. The irrigated area has already increased to 3.78 million hectares, with Andalusia leading the growth of this agricultural system so far this century. Rain-fed species such as olive trees, grapes and almond trees are irrigated. Between 2018 and 2024, 483,624 tons of fruits and vegetables were thrown away because more than needed was produced and market prices did not cover the costs. Although, on the other hand, the rural environment is being abandoned in a hurry, the Atlas highlights that the population is concentrated in urban areas that are located, in almost all cases, in arid areas. Four out of every five residents of Spain reside in densely populated areas, putting increased pressure on natural resources.
“With this research, we are trying to visualize this very complex problem and identify some solutions,” Valderrama says. “Addressing desertification – like other contemporary environmental crises – ultimately requires a shift in values and a deeper understanding of the social-ecological systems in which we live,” ADE concluded. A “collective challenge” that “means, first, recognizing that our way of life contributes to degradation; and second, compensating for this damage through profound changes in production and consumption. Beyond environmental remediation, this constitutes an ethical and cultural challenge, perhaps greater than a purely technological challenge.”