INCIDENCE OF CATASTROPHIC METEOROLOGYICAL EPISODES ON THE AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITY OF THE VINALOPO VALLEY (ALICANTE, SPAIN)

Abstract

The farming activity in the Vinalopó Valley (Alicante), which is basically conditioned by water problems (overexploitaition oí the aquiferous layers, harnessing of surplusses from The Segura river), has been seriously jeopardized, within the last decade, by a series of meteorological events, of an extraordinaty character, which have revealed the precarious balance, existing in some areas of this subregionak space, between the natural environment and its human use through farming. Said atmospheric events of dramatic consequenses Iiave brought about, not only the inmediate fall of the farmers'income level, but also variation in the very Iwalisation of the crops aiid even, prossibly, the abandonment of farming in some cases. This paper analyses both the meteorological plienomena which caused the development of such episodes -hail, frost, and violent rains- and their econoniical outcome, as well as the measures whicli have been carried out so as to mitigate their consequenses.