Sustainability of the Mar Menor region - A participatory system dynamics conceptual model

Summary

Over the last decades water quality and ecosystem health of the Mar Menor in Spain, one of the biggest hypersaline lagoons in the Mediterranean has declined dramatically, causing important economic and social impacts. SMARTLAGOON´s primary goals are to build a systemic understanding of the socio-environmental interrelationships that affect the Mar Menor coastal lagoon and its ecosystem and to predict the socio-environmental evolution in this highly anthropized coastal lagoon while increasing local and citywide awareness of the socio-environmental impacts, as well as the social and economic costs to the local community. To achieve the above-mentioned goal, a participatory modelling workshop series encompassing five workshops is used as a temporary forum for selected experts/stakeholders, focusing on the socioenvironmental dynamics that affect Mar Menor coastal lagoon and its ecosystem, for sharing knowledge and experiences, discussing solutions and intervention points for the selected sectors, as well as preferred policy options. Deliverable 4.3 lays the foundations of the participatory modelling work carried out in WP4 and focuses on mapping system interactions as perceived by the stakeholders, to gain an in-depth understanding of key dynamics and explore different management and policy solutions for the sustainability of the Mar Menor coastal lagoon area. The environmental deterioration of this unique ecosystem has its roots in unsustainable economic practices. Untreated sewage from growing urbanizations attracting mass tourism was entering the lagoon over many years, nutrient runoff multiplied when agriculture and livestock expansion became possible due to water transfer from the Tagus-Segura basin and fish stocks suffered not only from the environmental changes, but also from overfishing. Laws and regulations enacted to save the lagoon ecosystem, were only slowly implemented, and still lack sufficient control and enforcement. In addition, an increasing European demand for fresh fruits and vegetable deliveries all year round at lowest possible prices, acts as a barrier to enable the necessary changes to stop nutrient runoff from agriculture. The contribution of the research depicted in this deliverable is twofold: (1) it provides a system dynamic picture – in the form of causal loop diagrams – that represents a conceptual articulation of the socio-economic dynamics mapped with the help of stakeholders in the Mar Menor area and by desk research, (2) it generates qualitative (socio-economic and policy) relevant insights into the Mar Menor crisis, reflecting its complexity as a multi-faceted problem with implications for all socioeconomic sectors and governance levels. This work will serve as input for a system dynamics model, which will be developed as the next step.