Socio-Economic Evaluation of the Terra Cha Irrigators Community by using a Geographic Information System - Spain

Resumo

This paper presents a method to acquire data before the improvement an irrigationarea. This method was applied to the irrigation management unit: the irrigators community.The farms comprised in the area were analysed from a technical and socio-economicperspective.The first step in the proposed method was the design of a survey that included 59questions, grouped into 9 sections, according to subject: title, ownership, water management,irrigation, irrigators communities, cultivation techniques, economic factors, sustainability, andopinion. The present case study surveyed 193 farms, divided into three sectors by the NationalColonization Institute (NCI) according to different features. The survey returned severalvariables that established population groups for further analysis, among which farmingactivity and monthly income. In addition, a Geographic Information System (GIS) wasdeveloped to represent and analyse water management.The main result of this study was the knowledge of the current situation in the studiedirrigation area. Earlier studies did not have such an ambitious objective. The integration of theresults of the survey into GIS verified farm specialization and spatial clustering in the zoneswith the best environmental features. Some knowledge of the area is required to interpret thedescriptives of the variables contained in the survey because the opinion answers were biased.The Geographic Information System developed in this study supports decision-makingduring the irrigation modernisation process. GIS serves as a basis for future implementation ofa model of sustainable water management. The use of GIS was very useful in other irrigationareas, especially in programmes of advice to irrigators and in programmes of management ofirrigators communities.