AQUIMED - Farmers’ relations to climate variabilities and changes: the case of groundwater users of coastal aquifers in France, Portugal and Morocco

In the frame of the project AQUIMED farmers’ relations to climate variabilities and changes with respect to groundwater users of coastal aquifers were investigated in case studies in the Roussillon Plain in France, the Querença-Silves Region in Portugal, and the Coastal Chaouia Region in Morocco. Consequences on farmers’ action and predisposition towards involvement in groundwater resource management and adaptation to climate changes differ among the cases studied. In the Roussillon and Querença-Silves areas, farmers do not yet face limitations in groundwater extractions and in the same time face increasing difficulties to go on farming: in these areas, discussion on climate change and groundwater management will need to be integrated with a discussion on the future of agriculture. In the Chaouia area, farmers already face groundwater overexploitation and seawater intrusion. In a situation of lack of initiative towards groundwater resource management, farmers implement a series of adaptative actions at farm level.