ABSTRACT
The Spain that emerged from the transition is different from what it was before, different even from itself. The old, “different Spain” was an image projected by the tourist industry that sought to entice visitors and their currency to a land of castles and cathedrals, flamenco and guitars, bullfights, mantillas and carnations, picture-book villages seemingly untouched by time, and austere cities where life seemed to be locked away behind stone walls and iron gates. Spain has a total land mass of 517,069 square kilometers, including two archipelagos—the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic—that are politically integral parts of the country. In dry Spain, the scarcity of water is compounded by its seasonal irregularity, for the heaviest rainfall does not coincide with the highest temperatures. In other words, in dry Spain, the growing season has the least amount of rainfall, making irrigation a necessity and an added expense.
