Climate change is considerably affecting the flow of rivers and the species that inhabit them. This impact on future water management and ecological flows has prompted a study, called ‘Adaptation to global change: comprehensive management of the ecological flow regime for the habitat of the European eel and the Valencian horn against invasive species’, which has the support of the Biodiversity Foundation.

The Universitat Politècnica de València launched this project whose objective was toto update the ecological flow regime in the Serpis River (Valencian Community), favouring the conservation of native species over invasive ones and considering different climate change and management scenarios, as well as the economic cost of these alternative regimes. Until now, the difficulty of observing and taking data on some species of fish has meant that information is very limited for some vulnerable and critically endangered species, such as the Valencian cachuelo and the European eel.

The project had the collaboration of irrigation associations, fishermen’s guilds, environmental NGOs, representatives of the Júcar Hydrographic Confederation and the Generalitat Valenciana, providing ideas and solutions for better water management and a more appropriate adaptation to the range of reductions in water resources expected in climate change scenarios.