Resumen de Development of climate services for the management of mediterranean water resource systems: case study of the júcar system and valencia water supply
Climate services result from combining climate data and other relevant information and are valuable for climate change adaptation or mitigation decision-making. Ideally, such services function as a bridge between pure climate data and end-users so that the science is translated into useful and understandable products or services. Climate services for adaptation can be developed at individual, local and regional scales and help communities and individuals prepare for and cope with the effects of climate change. Climate services have often been developed by climate data experts without considering the specific needs of end-users. This top-down approach often means that the most relevant information is not used in their creation and the end-user perspective is neglected during the design process. The disconnect between potential users of climate services and the products themselves has led to a lack of uptake and use of climate services, even among those users most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Co-creation of climate services with the users who will use them can help to address many of the challenges described above. By involving users in the design and development of services, it is easier to make them relevant, tailored to their needs and easy to use. This can help raise awareness and understanding of the potential impacts of climate change and build trust in the services provided. In addition, co-creating these services can help develop more sustainable business models for climate services: by involving users in developing and financing services, business models based on mutual benefit and shared ownership can be created. This can contribute to making services sustainable and able to continue to be provided in the long term. Co-creation can ultimately help to ensure that services are seen as relevant and valuable to users, and that users are willing to invest the time and resources to use them on a sustained basis over time.
This thesis aims to contribute to developing effective, user-driven climate services for climate change adaptation, with a focus on the water sector. Promoting the co-creation of climate services aims to ensure that adaptation strategies are tailored to the specific needs of different users of climate services, and to build resilience and capacity in organisations and communities. The case study consists of co-creating a climate service to assess climate change impacts on the water supply system of Valencia and its metropolitan area. The climate service was created jointly with the local water supply company of Valencia (EMIVASA), in the context of the INNOVA project. To carry out this analysis, a system dynamics model of the Júcar basin, capable of representing the complex interrelationships of the system over time, was developed and combined with a water quality model of the Tous reservoir to perform the analysis on the quality of the future resource available. This work demonstrates the value of involving end-users in co-creating climate services to ensure their relevance, utility and acceptability. It does so by applying this methodology to the Júcar river basin and to the problem of supplying the city of Valencia in future climate change scenarios. This application allows conclusions to be drawn on ways to co-create this type of product and the best ways to address the co-creation of climate services in critical sectors, such as the drinking water supply.
