Towards a new efficiency paradigm for drip irrigation? Changes in water allocation and management in irrigation and wetland systems

During the last thirty years, many farmers and collective irrigation institutions have replaced their traditional gravity irrigation systems with modern drip irrigation systems, as a result of a water-saving policy promoted by numerous states and international organisations. The scientific-technical paradigm that associated water-savings with this process of technological change has collapsed in the last two decades and has led to a change in the position of international organisations. In this research, we focus on the process of drip irrigation adoption in the Acequia Real del Júcar (València, Spain). We analyse how the estimation and allocation of the expected water savings have changed in the different water planning instruments, and how it has been perceived by the different actors involved in this process. The research has also focused on the co-design and assessment of different measures to correct the impacts of this technological change, locally and on the Albufera wetland, located immediately downstream of the abovementioned irrigable area. The research is based on a documentary review and a participatory action research. The results show how the emerging concept of the rebound effect is permeating too slowly from academia to institutions and users, and that there is a need to stimulate innovative decision-making to achieve a more rigorous allocation of water and to adapt water and environmental planning. The research analyse a pioneering action which is the first sign of the materialisation of a change in the efficiency paradigm. [Display omitted] •We analyse how the estimation and allocation of expected water savings in water planning instruments have changed over time.•The research addresses the co-design and evaluation of different measures to correct the impacts of drip irrigation adoption.•This case shows how the emerging concept of the rebound effect is slowly permeating from academia to institutions and users.•The proposals elaborated contrast with the absence of corrective measures in Spain and other parts of the world.•A possible paradigm shift emerges from this case that deserves to be replicated and improved in other territories.