Journal of Agriculture & Life Sciences

Towards a More Territorial Analysis Approach Deepening in the Stakeholders’ Discourses of Three Multi-Functional Southern European Irrigated Systems
Sandra Ricart Casadevall

Abstract
The management of irrigation has become the protagonist in a debate where society questions their own socioeconomic, environmental, and cultural limits while emphasizing its multi-functional role. This article maps the interaction between irrigation multi-functionality and territorial management in Southern Europe (Spain, France, and Italy) in order to: 1) promote a discussion about the future of multi-functional irrigated systems, 2) provide the basis for a territorial management of irrigation systems from the inclusion of civil society into decision-making processes, 3) justify the ability to propose an agreement between competing water uses and key stakeholders, 4) determine the profile of the involved stakeholders regarding their discourses, and 5) elucidate some strategies and actions for improving good governance. The obtained results show the diversity of competing water discourses defined for each irrigation system, the ability or not for managing the differences between stakeholders demands, and provide some strategies for improving good governance.

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