La gestión integrada de los recursos hídricos en las Islas Baleares

In the Mediterranean, the water resources mainly depend on rainfall which presents both, annual and hyper annual variations. Sustainable water management needs to adapt to this cycle variations and to manage the available resources according to this rainfall cycles. Only the use of the inertia and the storage capacity of the aquifers, with non conventional resources, can successfully face the inevitable drought periods. In the Balearic Islands, an integrated management of all resources, conventional and non conventional, combined with a good water demand management, resulted fundamental in overcoming the lack of precipitation (50% under the mean) during the 1998-2001 period and is presented as the best way to solve the future resources management.