Extended abstract 266

A recent morphological and hydrogeological description of the Doñana areas can be found in Custodio et al. (2009). It is the largest seminatural area of Western Europe and holds a 3000km2 aquifer system. The territory was unhabited due to the very poor eolian sand soil cover, the marshes and a large number of lagoons and wetlands. There is a very long, almost untouched coastal area only developed for shell–fish capturing, except for two recent, localized, large tourist resorts. The area was promoted for irrigated agriculture in the 1970s using local deep groundwater from a coarse layer below thick fluvio–marine sand formations. It also holds a large protected area as national and natural parks. Groundwater studies are available since the late 1960s and especially from the late 1970s. In the 1980’s a dedicated groundwater monitoring network, with point piezometres open at different depths. Detailed numerical modelling has been carried out. Studies included a temperature borehole logging survey.

Peer Reviewed