Assessment of the transferred water infiltration in the management of a Mediterranean man-maintained wetland: las Tablas de Daimiel national park (Spain)

Abstract

Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park wetlands (Central Spain) have had their main origin in the West La Macha aquifer discharges. Inflows into these wetlands ceased due to the intensive aquifer exploitation. A progresive deterioration of the wetland brought about several attempts of remedial actions by means of building several small dams and pumping groundwater to the Las Tablas basin. The main attempt to preserve these wetlands has been made by means of the inter-basins tranfers. However, a part of these water transfers is lost within the wetland basin due to the infiltration into the underlying aquifer. Infilitration becomes an essential parameter in any study related to the attempts at keemping some water in the basin and, therefore, in the integrated managmeent of the water resources systems related to the wetland. The actual extent of these losses is difficult to quantify due to the poor quality of existing data as well as to the lack of determination of various important parameters. A methodology based on dailiy water balance in the wetland basin allows to assess that losses and can be used for the National Park water management.