Xavier Garcia

ICRA Catalan Institute for Water Research | ICRA · Resources and Ecosystems Research Group

Water affordability as a dimension of water poverty is becoming an increasing source of concern in cities of the Global North. Studies on water affordability are either based on water wants and not needs or tend to use spatial scales too large for effective analyses of local inequities that can truly guide policy actions. In this contribution, we c...

This study aims to investigate the differences in intra-urban catchments with different characteristics through real-time wastewater monitoring. Monitoring stations were installed in three neighbourhoods of Barcelona to measure flow, total chemical oxygen demand (COD), pH, conductivity, temperature, and bisulfide (HS-) for 1 year. Typical wastewate...

The issue of water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change and demographic increase, has become a growing concern in many regions throughout the world. Understanding hydrological behaviour to promote resilient and sustainable water management is paramount. Hydrological models that integrate natural processes and anthropogenic alterations of the bas...

Modelling tools simulate the functioning of ecosystems and their interactions with human activities, helping decision-makers understand how interventions impact ecosystems and evaluate management strategies. This leads to informed decisions that balance human development and environmental protection. Among these models, SWAT stands out for its abil...

Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) play a fundamental role in biogeochemical cycles of freshwater ecosystems. However, the lack of readily available distributed models for carbon export has limited the effective management of organic carbon fluxes from soils, through river networks and to receiving marine waters. We...

The characterization of local food environments is of great importance due to its connection with the health of citizens. Nevertheless, little is known about the in-store availability, quality, and price of healthy items in convenience stores, a food store quickly spreading in urban settings around the globe. To fill this gap, this study explores t...

Saving water in tourist destinations is most effective when guests staying in rental accommodation actively participate and collaborate in it, especially in regions where water is scarce, such as the Mediterranean. There are several guest-centred water-saving measures that may be significant and therefore play an important role in saving water, inc...

A growing number of academics and practitioners call for the consideration of the benefits of ecosystems to support restoration. In river restoration, anthropocentric valuation has gained ground in large part due to the development of the ecosystem services (ES) concept. The main objective of this chapter is to provide a useful insight for practiti...

There is a gap between the increasing social use of urban rivers and limited citizen participation in river management under the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). A pilot participatory process aimed at promoting the active involvement of the general public in the management of an urban stream in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region was designed and...

The need for public participation is gaining increasing attention in environmental management in general, and specifically in the rehabilitation of degraded river corridors. Web-based Public Participation GIS (PPGIS) methods are one way of addressing this demand and complementing traditional participation formats, since they are more flexible in ti...

Managing water consumption is of vital importance in the sustainable development of the tourism industry. In the hotel sector, guests’ good water consumption habits result in greater conservation, leading to more efficient sustainable management of the resource. Sociodemographic profile has been identified as a key factor in explaining the frequenc...

The objective of this study is to identify landscape drivers of rare species' distribution, and to predict their abundance in the Lipetsk Region (Russia). Methods: we input locations of 1,165 nesting sites of 60 bird species into GIS and applied fishnet analysis with a cell size of 100 km 2. For each of the 220 cells in the region, we computed the...

This article addresses household strategies for coping with perceived tap water quality issues. By using a household survey (n = 581) in Catalonia (Spain) and three models, this article analyses the drivers and motivations behind the installation of in-home water treatment systems, and the use of bottled water for drinking and cooking. The main exp...

Leisure-Time Physical Activity (LTPA) in green environments is influenced by various social and physical environmental factors. A better understanding of how green environment users perceive these factors may have important implications for health and wellbeing promotion among urban dwellers. This research explores LTPA environmental factors and re...

Perceived safety influences women's use of green environments (GE) for physical activity with considerable implications on health. In order to address gender inequality in GE use, the effects of physical and social environmental factors on women's perception of safety must be assessed. To achieve this, a pilot study designed and implemented a safet...

The city of Sant Cugat del Vallès (Spain) has made mandatory the installation of rainwater harvesting systems in new housing units with large gardens but also has provided subsidies to households to build these systems on a voluntary basis. We conducted a survey of households in both groups (mandatory and voluntary) to explore the effectiveness of...

Unhealthy dietary habits are affecting negatively the health status of citizens throughout the world. Reversing unequal local food environments, in terms of physical accessibility to food stores with healthy items, can be an effective way to mitigate the poor eating habits of the population and contribute to the sustainability of agri-food systems....

Human activities have caused the degradation of rivers and streams, and consequently, the disruption of the provision of valuable services. Therefore, the rehabilitation of these ecosystems can provide many benefits that will contribute to the well-being of society. However, these projects often meet with controversial public responses because of c...

River landscapes are complex social-ecological systems with many benefits for people. A common challenge is to integrate social values in river planning and management. In particular, there is a paucity of research on the meaning and significance of place in river recreation and how people feel emotionally and spiritually connected to river landsca...

Water consumption may be declining in tourist centres and cities of the Western Mediterranean. The paper presents data showing the decrease of water consumption in the mass tourism resort of Benidorm, Spain, between 2005 and 2014, estimates the influence of factors such as hotel size and hotel category in this reduction, and attempts to discern to...

The sustainability of metropolitan regions is closely related to the transformation of rivers into civic and ecological corridors. While river rehabilitation in the inner city has been widely reported, ongoing river rehabilitation processes in non-central city parts remain under-researched. We analysed the socio-spatial evolution of a 10-km suburba...

The ecological restoration of coastal wetlands is vital to preserving the integrity of these valuable ecosystems. However, the implementation of ecological restoration should also consider its potential negative effects. This study aimed to evaluate the socioeconomic value of the ecological restoration of a coastal wetland at a mass tourism destina...

An original species distribution modeling technique was tested. The distribution of rare avifauna was predicted using well-formalized landscape features, principal component analysis and geographically weighted Poisson regression, Lipetsk region case, Russia. Апробирована оригинальная методика прогнозного моделирования размещения редких видов биот...

Mass tourism, which has traditionally been associated with an unsustainable use of natural resources and intensive land use, is frequently identified as a major environmental stressor in coastal regions. Nonetheless, mass tourism resorts typically have a compact and vertical urban configuration and have been shown to make more efficient use of wate...

In the province of Concepción (Chile), floods are considered one of the main natural hazards. One of the most important cities of this area is Talcahuano. During the last years, Talcahuano has been affected by a number of flood episodes, as a consequence of an increase in the frequency of extraordinary atmospheric events, along with a higher exposu...

Abstract Decisions on river rehabilitation actions are often based on cost-benefit analyses taking into account the costs and benefits of the considered management actions, but ecosystem services are often not included as benefits, despite recent evidences on the effects of river rehabilitations on ecosystem services. A cost-benefit analysis integr...

Current approaches have failed to deliver a truly integrated management of the different elements of the urban water system, such as freshwater ecosystems, drinking water treatment plants, distribution networks, sewer systems and wastewater treatment plants. Because the different parts of urban water have not been well integrated, poor decisions ha...

En los espacios residenciales de baja densidad, la tipología de jardín se convierte en un factor determinante del consumo de agua en el hogar. En este artículo se utiliza el análisis clúster para identificar las diferentes tipologías de jardín privado que se dan en las urbanizaciones del sur de la comarca de La Selva (Girona). La información de bas...

Rehabilitating the good ecological status of rivers in urban catchments can represent a wise decision since it can enhance the provision of valuable ecosystem services, such as aesthetic appreciation. The higher prices of houses located closer to rivers are a reflection of the willingness of households to pay for access to such service. The main ob...

After the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the increase in urban and agricultural water demand and the increased flow of poorly treated sewage had a severe impact in one of the most ecologically important rivers in Israel, the Yarqon. The attempt to reverse this situation began with the creation of the Yarqon River Authority in 1988. In the...

Gardening has become a relevant contributor to the quality of life of suburbanites, as a source of leisure, to build a relationship with nature or to express a particular social identity. Nevertheless, water scarcity in the Mediterranean region has increased concerns about how demand should be managed to face future uncertainties, and watering the...

This article examines how the socio-demographic characteristics of residents in low-density suburban developments are important factors in understanding and predicting the attitudes and behaviors of residents in relation to residential water use. This paper is based on information obtained from 230 surveyed residents in 9 municipalities of Girona (...

A l’ambit mediterrani, amb problemes recurrents de disponibilitat hidrica, l’us de l’aigua destinada als usos exteriors dels habitatges unifamiliars, aillats o adossats (piscina, jardi, hort, etc.), esdeve un dels factors importants a l’hora d’entendre per que aquest model residencial computa uns consums d’aigua per capita superiors en comparacio a...

Previous research has suggested that a range of socio-demographic and place-attachment attributes might indicate the willingness of households to take direct action on water conservation. Based on a study of suburban residents from the Girona region of Spain, this article seeks to determine whether such variables are associated with pro-environment...

The act of watering a garden greatly increases domestic water consumption in residential areas. This issue has caused local governments and managers to become concerned over how homeowners shape and maintain their gardens. This subject is critical along the Mediterranean coast, where residential urban sprawl has expanded over the last few decades a...

In the Mediterranean, which suffers from persistent problems of water availability, the outdoor water uses of detached and semi-detached dwellings (swimming pools, gardens, orchards, etc.) are an important factor to understand why this residential model is associated with higher water consumption per capita than high-density residential areas. Howe...

The structure (biomass, species or Operational Taxonomic Unit [OUT] composition) and function (photosynthetic performance) of autotrophic and heterotrophic biofilm communities were investigated along a chemical gradient created downstream of a small Fe spring (Llémena watershed, Girona, northeastern Spain). Diatom species composition, diatom abunda...

Aquest treball pretén identificar, predir i valorar les problemàtiques associades a la implantació i desenvolupament dels polígons industrials LOGIS Empordà (El Far d’Empordà), Empordà Internacional i CM3 (Vilamalla) utilitzant diversos indicadors (aigües, residus industrials, mobilitat, contaminació atmosfèrica). Posteriorment es fa una proposta p...