Water management assessment in a historic garden: the case study of the Real Alcazar (Seville, Spain)

Irrigation plays a very important role in a Mediterranean garden. In spite of this, there are not many studies assessing irrigation water management of landscapes. Moreover, historic gardens represent a special challenge due to their unique characteristics. The aim of this work is the characterization and evaluation of water management in a historic garden. For that, the gardens of The Real Alcazar of Seville were used as a case study. They comprise a total of 20 gardens of different styles with a total area of nearly 7 ha. Landscape water requirements and irrigation volume applied were estimated and used in conjunction with other descriptive and financial variables to calculate 6 performance indicators. Only 20% of gardens showed adequate irrigation in the spring-autumn period, being 10% during summer. However, the two well-watered gardens represent 30% of the total irrigated area. Management, operation and maintenance costs are 0.63 €·m−2 representing 0.58 € per volume of irrigation water used (m−3). Results obtained support the need of improving irrigation management. For that, simple solutions such as installing metering devices, calculating actual water requirements or optimizing irrigation schedules can be implemented. Other more complex actions such as modifying the irrigation network or creating hydrozones might also be explored.