Historically, the Spanish water management model's predominate goal has been resource augmentation. This mindset has had important consequences for the system's capacity to cope with droughts. It has impacted the system's overall vulnerability, the discourse of scarcity, the conceptualisation of risk and the stakeholders' interests and their approach to risk. The aim of this article is to present the traditional hydraulic paradigm, its current crisis and implications for present and future risk management, and to explore stakeholder and institutional reactions and adaptation to changing risk scenarios. The adaptation process will be framed within the wider context of macro-trends, such as marketisation and re-scaling of institutions and global warming.