Urban and tourist land use patterns and water consumption: Evidence from Mallorca, Balearic Islands

► Quality tourism produces higher water consumption levels per capita than mass tourism. ► Garden irrigation may account for more than 70% of water consumption in summer. ► Garden design is more important for irrigation amounts than total garden area. ► Swimming pools cause an average additional water consumption of 22.6 l/p/d. ► Land use patterns are explanatory factors for water consumption patterns. The island of Mallorca is the main Balearic resort and sustainable water management is a key challenge for the economic and ecological sustainability of tourism as the main economic activity. The critical water supply situation on the island is being exacerbated by the extension of the tourist base to so-called “quality tourism”. Since the mid 1990s, low-density residential tourist land uses associated with second homes and more affluent urban dwellers have spread around existing mass tourist urban centres. Increasing water consumption for outdoor uses (gardens, swimming pools) is a direct consequence of this development. Available water consumption data mask the impact of residential tourism on water consumption levels. The objective of the present paper is to compare per capita water consumption in quality tourist, mass tourist and residential urban areas, and to provide quantitative information on the magnitude of water consumption by gardens and swimming pools as water-related leisure structures. The analysis combines water consumption data with a land use geodatabase at the sub-parcel scale, a detailed population inventory, and an estimate of pool water use. The results show that quality tourism produces higher water consumption levels per capita than mass tourism. Garden irrigation is the single main cause of the high water consumption in quality tourist areas and accounts for more than 70% of these areas’ total consumption in summer. But even in mass tourist and residential areas, garden irrigation accounts for up to 30% and 20%, respectively, of total water consumption in summer. Individually owned swimming pools cause an additional average water consumption of 22 litres/person/day. The proliferation of swimming pools and lavish ‘Atlantic’ gardens may turn out as one of the biggest threats to sustainable water management on the island of Mallorca and in other tourist destinations adapting the quality tourist model.