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.

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.

This chapter traces the origins of desalination in Spain in the 1960s which we relate to the parallel emergence of nuclear power. Contrary to the latter, however, desalination did not take off because of its high costs, and, more importantly, because of the preference of Spanish water planners for conventional hydraulic works such as dams, reservoirs and aqueducts. After decades of obscurity, desalination resurfaced in the 1990s, when a series of droughts hit the country, and especially after 2004, when social opposition to conventional hydraulic solutions (the Ebro water transfer) made this alternative the selected option for Eastern and Southeastern Spain through the so-called AGUA Programme. The crisis of 2007 and its devastating effects on the urbanization of the Mediterranean coast showed the limits of the ambitious AGUA Programme with many desalination plants canceled or working at very low capacities amidst accusations of overspending and corruption.

Interest in obtaining a more accurate snapshot of irrigation management from a geographical perspective is increasingly relevant. This proposal is based on existing qualitative approaches in combination with an alternative method (the territorial irrigation management model) to identify and present key stakeholders attitudes and perceptions in the Segarra-Garrigues irrigation system in Spain. Advantages are (1) the focus on interrelations and context, (2) the applicability and extrapolation of the irrigation system, and (3) the irrigator-driven rather than researcher-driven perspective. Results revealed that there are conceptual and practical heterogeneities between the preferences of stakeholders' groups regarding water resources management, environmental protection, and agricultural challenges.