Currently, water demands are increasing notoriously, spreading the pressure on available water resources around the world in both quantity and quality. Similarly, the expected reduction of natural water inputs, due to climate change, depicts a new level of uncertainty. Specifically, Southeast Spain presents water scarcity due to its aridity—irregular and scarce precipitation and high evapotranspiration rates—combined with the competition between several water demands: environment, agricultural dynamics, urban-tourist activities, and industry. The study area of this work is the most relevant functional urban area of Alicante province (SE Spain), where the administration of water management is carried out by a range of authorities at different levels as the consequence of a complex historical development of water governance schemes: at the national, regional, and local levels. This study analyzes 21 municipalities and proposes a conceptual model which was developed by including different origins of water inputs—surface resources, groundwater, desalination, wastewater reuse, or interbasin transfers—and water demands with information obtained from 16 different sources. Our main results denote a relevant water deficit of 72.6 hm³/year even when one of the greatest rates of desalinated water and reused wastewater in Europe are identified here. This negative balance entails restrictions in urban development and agricultural growth. Thus, presented results are noteworthy for the water policy makers and planning authorities, by balancing the demand for water among various end users and providing a way for understanding water distribution in a context of scarcity and increasing demand, which will become one of the most challenging tasks in the 21st century.

The rise in the number of urban road accidents is a challenge shared by all European cities, which seek to improve mobility while reducing transport problems. In recent years, urban road accidents in Spain have been constantly increasing and now account for a larger share of the total number of road accidents. This paper aims to analyse the impact of urban factors on road accidents. For this purpose, a small-scale analysis of land use and road infrastructure has been conducted in the town of Benidorm, one of the main tourist destinations in Spain. In addition, a regression analysis has been carried out using a Negative Binomial distribution. The results show that factors such as the level of mixed land uses, population density and road infrastructure are related to urban road accidents. The findings also reveal that tourism environments have a positive impact on pedestrian road safety. Small-scale analyses, particularly those related to exclusively-oriented environments, such as tourism developments, should be studied in detail in order to promote safety, liveability and sustainability in our cities.

En el sureste de España se sitúa la Demarcación Hidrográfica del Segura, afectada por un escenario de déficit estructural, como consecuencia de contar con una precipitación muy baja —la menor del continente— y que, ante los escenarios de cambio climático, puede agravarse durante los próximos años. Esta situación de escasez ha requerido la combinación de recursos de diversos orígenes, que pueden clasificarse en los naturales y los no convencionales, que intentan alcanzar en conjunto un grado satisfactorio de atención de las demandas, principalmente en las más importantes por su volumen, como son el regadío y el abastecimiento. El objetivo principal del presente estudio es el análisis detallado del déficit mediante la información recogida por la planificación hidrológica, identificando aquellas áreas donde se concentra esta anomalía y que coinciden en gran medida con las zonas regables del Trasvase Tajo-Segura. Como objetivo secundario, se plantean las alternativas que permitan la movilización de nuevos recursos que consigan aumentar la oferta actual, específicamente, aquellos procedentes de la desalinización. Para ello, será necesaria la ejecución de nuevas infraestructuras, que ya contempla la planificación actual, pero que pueden añadir nuevos condicionantes, esencialmente económicos, motivados por los sobrecostes sobre el ya elevado precio del agua desalinizada y que cuestionaría la viabilidad económica del sector agroalimentario dependiente de este insumo fundamental.