Towards sustainable water use on Mediterranean islands: addressing conflicting demands and varying hydrological, social and economic conditions

- MEDIS will advance a rational sustainable and equitable use of water on islands in the Mediterranean and will thereby contribute to the implementation of the Water Framework Directive. The study will be carried out on Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Mallorca and Sicily. Based on data on hydrology, geophysics and climate improved methodologies for the characterisation of aquifers and the monitoring of water consumption, recharge and safe field will be developed.
- Improved agricultural practices aimed to conserve water will be specified. A stakeholder analysis and the collection and analysis of information on water demand by various consumers will lead to mutually agreeable water distribution schemes in a participatory process. This will form the basis for recommendations on equitable and sustainable water management regimes as derived through Multi-Criteria-analysis under current and future precipitation rates. Within MEDIS, a dialogue between scientists and stakeholders on each island as well as between principal stakeholders from each island will be facilitated thus enabling recommendations that will embrace generic solutions to a sustainable use of water in the Mediterranean.