The aim of this study was to investigate guest profiles at a hotel that has created a best-practices water management model to determine how different types of guests contribute to saving water during their stay. To do this, we analyzed levels of environmental awareness and pro-environmental behavior among the guests. Information was gathered through 648 structured surveys with guests at Hotel Samba in the Spanish seaside resort of Lloret de Mar between September 2015 and August 2016. Cluster analysis revealed four profiles of guests with different sociodemographic characteristics and different levels of awareness and proactivity in relation to water conservation. We combined our findings to develop a framework that illustrates how the two dimensions of environmental awareness and pro-environmental behavior are related in this setting. This article provides new insights into how hotel guests’ environmental awareness and engagement can influence a hotel’s water-saving efforts. These insights should help hotel operators to devise new, guest-centered strategies for saving water.

Taking as an example three study cases in the Costa Brava area, this paper examines the social perception of floods through surveys, interviews and Focus Group sessions. Perception is then related to vulnerability, flood management, and citizen's preferences regarding alternatives to curb flood losses in the future. The study concludes that flood awareness and the willingness to take actions regarding this hazard are clearly related to the degree of social involvement with the affairs of the local community. Furthermore, participatory settings such as Focus Group sessions appear to enable a better environment for assessing and implementing flood management options that attempt to modify human activities rather than modify natural processes as has been frequently the case in the past.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to assess the main changes regarding flood policy in Spain during the period 1983-2013, that is right after the large and very damaging episodes of 1982-1983 in Valencia, Catalonia and the Basque Country. Design/methodology/approach: – This is above all a review paper that looks retrospectively at flood policy in Spain during the past three decades. In order to collect and organize the information the authors follow the methodology of the IPCC regarding vulnerability studies. That is, the authors provide evidence for an overall assessment of the evolution of exposure, sensibility and adaptive capacity to floods in Spain for the period of reference. The authors approach these issues through the own experience and expertise on this subject as noted in the reference list. Findings: – While exposure to floods has generally increased (especially after the massive growth of urbanization in flood prone land of the 1990s and early 2000s) overall flood policy has contributed to make Spain less sensible and more adapted to floods. Still some issues remain unsolved especially the control of urban growth and the adaptation of the built environment to floods. For these reasons absolute economic losses from floods may continue to be important in the future (perhaps more so with climate change) even though, overall, Spanish society may have become less vulnerable and therefore more resilient than in the past. Originality/value: – The paper provides a retrospective study and assessment of policies taken and their changes regarding floods at a national level over a long period of time (30 years) which is a theme still relatively little explored in the scientific literature on this hazard.

The successes and failures of water reuse schemes are shaped by complex interrelationships between technological, economic, and socio-political factors. However, it has long been recognized that the main challenges to more effective water management are largely social rather than technical. This article reviews the recent literature (2007–2017) to analyze driving factors associated with farmers’ concerns and public perception of reclaimed wastewater for irrigation. The aim of the paper is to synthetize how both environmental and health risks and the yuck factor could be addressed in order to promote mutual understanding between farmers and the public. Results show: (1) how farmers and the public perceive environmental and health risks in a similar way, (2) how the yuck factor is more noticeable for the public than farmers, and (3) how constructed wetlands, reclaimed water exchange consortiums, product certification, and direct site visits to water reuse infrastructure could be promoted in order to foster understanding between farmers and the public. The article concludes by providing key research questions for managers and public authorities relating to how to focus on the study of technical and social issues related to water reuse.

The aim of this article is to conduct an evidence-based analysis of stakeholder engagement in decision-making processes affecting multifunctional irrigation systems. The selection of case studies has allowed us to examine different tools that promote stakeholder engagement and good governance. The case studies show how stakeholder engagement in irrigation systems shapes hydrosocial territories: (1) by reducing tension between stakeholders, (2) by redirecting regional planning and strategy, (3) by highlighting water crises, (4) by decentralizing water responsibilities, and (5) by integrating values and beliefs from different stakeholders.