Development of a GIS catalog of hydrological resources and consumption points of a semiarid area with intensive agriculture

Almerı´a is a Spanish province located southeast the Iberian Peninsula, with a semiarid climate, that holds the largest concentration of greenhouses in the world (>30000 hectares). Main restriction of its development if given by its semiarid condition, with overexploited water resources. From 1992 to 1996 our group developed ESTIARA-SIG, a GIS based decision support system for the rural development of the province. Taking advantage of the data included into this system, we evaluated the suitability of developing a catalog of inputs and outputs of the hydrological resources of the Poniente area, where greenhouses and tourist installations are concentrated. The final objective of this catalog is modeling the use of water of the whole area, taking account not only of the quantity of the resources but of their quality.