Ordenación del territorio, escasez de recursos hídricos, competencia de usos e intensificación de las demandas urbano-turísticas en la Comunidad Valenciana

From a pronounced spatial inbalance of water resources in the Valencia Region, intensified by demand, the paper analyses competition for water between irrigated lands and urban-tourist areas. A determining factor is the deficient quality of available water resources. This gives a high strategic value to Tajo-Segura transfer and to the rivers originating in other regions such as Júcar, Turia and Segura, whose use has generated the so-called «water wars» with adjoining regions, especially with Castilla-La Mancha. After a detailed report of the different kinds of competition, the possibilities of establishing (economic) agreements between water for irrigation and water for urban areas is assessed. This study concludes with a section on Land Use Planning that contains proposals to reduce and to monitor urban-tourist supplies.