The Alps under climate change: implications for water management in Europe

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 197-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Vanham
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Water Sector ◽  
Po River ◽  
Integrated Water Management ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Hydrological Regimes

The Alps function as a water tower for four of the major European river basins. However, a climate change-induced shift in mountain hydrological regimes and the future predicted disappearance of Alpine glaciers at the end of this century will have consequences for water management in both the Alps and the water-dependent lowlands. In this paper the importance of mountain water in the European lowlands and the impact of climate change on the water sector in both the mountains and lowlands are shown. Different demand stakeholders of the Alpine water sector will be affected. Dependent on the particular region in the Alps, problems will be less or more severe but generally adaptation can be achieved by means of the right investments and policies. However, major impacts on the water sector in the lowlands of the Danube, Rhine, Rhone and Po river basins are foreseen. Integrated water management at basin level is required to cope with these challenges.

scholarly journals Participatory Evaluation of Water Management Options for Climate Change Adaptation in River Basins

Environments ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Anabel Sanchez-Plaza ◽  
Annelies Broekman ◽  
Javier Retana ◽  
Adriana Bruggeman ◽  
Elias Giannakis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Impact Analysis ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Participatory Evaluation ◽  
Management Options ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Induced Changes ◽  
The Impact

Climate and other human-induced changes will increase water scarcity in world areas such as in the Mediterranean. Adaptation principles need to be urgently incorporated into water management and stakeholder engagement needs to be strengthened at all steps of the management cycle. This study aimed to analyse and compare stakeholder-preferred water management options (WMOs) to face climate change related challenges and to foster adaptation in four Mediterranean river basins. The challenges and WMOs of the four river basins identified by stakeholders were analysed examining to what extent the WMOs tackled the identified challenges. The impact of the WMOs resulting from a participatory modelling method was included in a comparative analysis of the stakeholders’ WMOs preferences. The results indicate the participatory approach that was applied allowed local priorities and real-world challenges to be defined with adequate detail as well as the definition of tailored responses. The participatory impact analysis provided an integrated view of the river basin as an interrelated system. The participatory evaluation of the WMOs was able to consider a wide range of elements and was able reflect the combined preferences of the stakeholders. Moreover, it allowed groups of basin actors with highly diverse profiles and concerns to further promote sets of these WMOs as input into decision making processes.

Communicating water-related climate change hazards to local stakeholders

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Müller ◽  
Petra Döll
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Biosphere Reserve ◽  
Hydrological Models ◽  
Model Ensemble ◽  
Hydrological Hazards ◽  
Local Stakeholders ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
The Impact

<p>Due to climate change, the water cycle is changing which requires to adapt water management in many regions. The transdisciplinary project KlimaRhön aims at assessing water-related risks and developing adaptation measures in water management in the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Rhön in Central Germany. One of the challenges is to inform local stakeholders about hydrological hazards in in the biosphere reserve, which has an area of only 2433 km² and for which no regional hydrological simulations are available. To overcome the lack of local simulations of the impact of climate change on water resources, existing simulations by a number of global hydrological models (GHMs) were evaluated for the study area. While the coarse model resolution of 0.5°x0.5° (55 km x 55 km at the equator) is certainly problematic for the small study area, the advantage is that both the uncertainty of climate simulations and hydrological models can be taken into account to provide a best estimate of future hazards and their (large) uncertainties. This is different from most local hydrological climate change impact assessments, where only one hydrological model is used, which leads to an underestimation of future uncertainty as different hydrological models translate climatic changes differently into hydrological changes and, for example, mostly do not take into account the effect of changing atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> on evapotranspiration and thus runoff.   </p><p>The global climate change impact simulations were performed in a consistent manner by various international modeling groups following a protocol developed by ISIMIP (ISIMIP 2b, www.isimip.org); the simulation results are freely available for download. We processed, analyzed and visualized the results of the multi-model ensemble, which consists of eight GHMs driven by the bias-adjusted output of four general circulation models. The ensemble of potential changes of total runoff and groundwater recharge were calculated for two 30-year future periods relative to a reference period, analyzing annual and seasonal means as well as interannual variability. Moreover, the two representative concentration pathways RCP 2.6 and 8.5 were chosen to inform stakeholders about two possible courses of anthropogenic emissions.</p><p>To communicate the results to local stakeholders effectively, the way to present modeling results and their uncertainty is crucial. The visualization and textual/oral presentation should not be overwhelming but comprehensive, comprehensible and engaging. It should help the stakeholder to understand the likelihood of particular hazards that can be derived from multi-model ensemble projections. In this contribution, we present the communication approach we applied during a stakeholder workshop as well as its evaluation by the stakeholders.</p>

scholarly journals Water Accounting Plus (WA+) – a water accounting procedure for complex river basins based on satellite measurements

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 2459-2472 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Karimi ◽  
W. G. M. Bastiaanssen ◽  
D. Molden
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
Satellite Measurements ◽  
Resource Base ◽  
Water Depletion ◽  
Water Accounting ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Coping with water scarcity and growing competition for water among different sectors requires proper water management strategies and decision processes. A pre-requisite is a clear understanding of the basin hydrological processes, manageable and unmanageable water flows, the interaction with land use and opportunities to mitigate the negative effects and increase the benefits of water depletion on society. Currently, water professionals do not have a common framework that links depletion to user groups of water and their benefits. The absence of a standard hydrological and water management summary is causing confusion and wrong decisions. The non-availability of water flow data is one of the underpinning reasons for not having operational water accounting systems for river basins in place. In this paper, we introduce Water Accounting Plus (WA+), which is a new framework designed to provide explicit spatial information on water depletion and net withdrawal processes in complex river basins. The influence of land use and landscape evapotranspiration on the water cycle is described explicitly by defining land use groups with common characteristics. WA+ presents four sheets including (i) a resource base sheet, (ii) an evapotranspiration sheet, (iii) a productivity sheet, and (iv) a withdrawal sheet. Every sheet encompasses a set of indicators that summarise the overall water resources situation. The impact of external (e.g., climate change) and internal influences (e.g., infrastructure building) can be estimated by studying the changes in these WA+ indicators. Satellite measurements can be used to acquire a vast amount of required data but is not a precondition for implementing WA+ framework. Data from hydrological models and water allocation models can also be used as inputs to WA+.

scholarly journals Integrated assessment of impact of water resources of important river basins in Eastern India under projected climate conditions

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 594-606 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Catchment Area ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Distributed Hydrological Model ◽  
Eastern India ◽  
Impact Of Climate Change ◽  
Daily Weather Data ◽  
The Impact

<div> <p>The impact of climate change on water resources through increased evaporation combined with regional changes in precipitation characteristics has the potential to affect mean runoff, frequency and intensity of floods and droughts, soil moisture and water supply for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation. The Ganga-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) system is the largest in India with a catchment area of about 110Mha, which is more than 43% of the cumulative catchment area of all the major rivers in the country. The river Damodar is an important sub catchment of GBM basin and its three tributaries- the Bokaro, the Konar and the Barakar form one important tributary of the Bhagirathi-Hughli (a tributary of Ganga) in its lower reaches. The present study is an attempt to assess the impacts of climate change on water resources of the four important Eastern River Basins namely Damodar, Subarnarekha, Mahanadi and Ajoy, which have immense importance in industrial and agricultural scenarios in eastern India. A distributed hydrological model (HEC-HMS) has been used on the four river basins using HadRM2 daily weather data for the period from 2041 to 2060 to predict the impact of climate change on water resources of these river systems.&nbsp;</p> </div> <p>&nbsp;</p>

Climate change impact chains in the water sector: observations from projects on the East India coast

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 216-232
Author(s):  
Sibylle Kabisch ◽  
Ronjon Chakrabarti ◽  
Till Wolf ◽  
Wilhelm Kiewitt ◽  
Ty Gorman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Climate Change Impact ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
Climate Impacts ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
The Impact

With regional variations, climate change has a significant impact on water quality deterioration and scarcity, which are serious challenges in developing countries and emerging economies. Often, effective projects to improve water management in the light of climate change are difficult to develop because of the complex interrelations between direct and indirect climate impacts and local perceptions of vulnerabilities and needs. Adaptation projects can be developed through a combination of participatory, bottom-up needs assessments and top-down analyses. Climate change impact chains can help to display the causal chain of climate signals and resulting impacts and thereby establish a system map as a basis for stakeholder discussions. This article aims to develop specific climate change impact chains for the water management sector in rural coastal India that combine bottom-up and top-down perspectives. Case studies from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, India, provide a basis for the impact chains developed. Bottom-up data were gathered through a vulnerability and needs assessment in 18 villages complemented with top-down research data. The article is divided into four steps: (1) system of interest; (2) data on climate change signals; (3) climate change impacts based on top-down as well as bottom-up information; (4) specific impact chains complemented by initial climate change adaptation options.

19. Indigenous Peoples’ Human Rights

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Havemann
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Group Rights ◽  
Indigenous Group ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines issues surrounding the human rights of Indigenous peoples. The conceptual framework for this chapter is informed by three broad, interrelated, and interdependent types of human rights: the right to existence, the right to self-determination, and individual human rights. After describing who Indigenous peoples are according to international law, the chapter considers the centuries of ambivalence about the recognition of Indigenous peoples. It then discusses the United Nations's establishment of a regime for Indigenous group rights and presents a case study of the impact of climate change on Indigenous peoples. It concludes with a reflection on the possibility of accommodating Indigenous peoples' self-determination with state sovereignty.

Urban water demand assessment for sustainable water resources management, under climate change and socioeconomic changes

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 679-687 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angelos Alamanos ◽  
Stamatis Sfyris ◽  
Chrysostomos Fafoutis ◽  
Nikitas Mylopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Water Conservation ◽  
Water Demand ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Sustainable Water Resources Management ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

Abstract The relationship between water abstraction and water availability has turned into a major stress factor in the urban exploitation of water resources. The situation is expected to be sharpened in the future due to the intensity of extreme meteorological phenomena, and socio-economic changes affecting water demand. In the city of Volos, Greece, the number of water counters has been tripled during the last four decades. This study attempts to simulate the city's network, supply system and water demand through a forecasting model. The forecast was examined under several situations, based on climate change and socio-economic observations of the city, using meteorological, water pricing, users' income, level of education, family members, floor and residence size variables. The most interesting outputs are: (a) the impact of each variable in the water consumption and (b) water balance under four management scenarios, indicating the future water management conditions of the broader area, including demand and supply management. The results proved that rational water management can lead to remarkable water conservation. The simulation of real scenarios and future situations in the city's water demand and balance, is the innovative element of the study, making it capable of supporting the local water utility.

Drought and water management in the German agricultural sector - a participatory system dynamics approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Valencia ◽  
Sabine Egerer ◽  
María Máñez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Water Management ◽  
Water Balance ◽  
System Dynamics ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Elevated Temperatures ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Group Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

&lt;p&gt;Higher temperatures and changes in precipitation patterns caused by climate change may potentially affect water availability for agriculture and increase the risk of crop loss in Northeast Lower Saxony (NELS), Germany. The drought of 2018 showed that an intensification of irrigation might be a temporary solution. However, a long-term increase in water extraction, especially during drought periods, is not a sustainable solution. To assess possible water management solutions, we implement a participatory system dynamics approach, namely Group Model Building, to develop a qualitative system dynamics model (QSDM) describing the agricultural system and its relation to water resources in NELS.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The development of the QSDM seeks to understand the complexity of the interactions between agriculture and hydrological systems, recognize the stakeholders&amp;#8217; needs and identify risks and weaknesses of both systems. By understanding this, we expect to reinforce the adaptation process, reduce conflict and be able to suggest tailored solutions and adaptation measures. The QSDM incorporates a wide range of perceptions, as twenty stakeholders ranging from farmers, government agencies, environmental protection organizations and local water authorities were involved in the QSDM development. Their perceptions were recorded in the QSDM through individual interviews and a group workshop.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Through the QSDM, we identified and mapped the structure and connections between agriculture and the water balance. It was also possible to identify the strongest feedback loops governing both sectors as well as their influence on the current situation. The loops represent behaviors and structures, which might become unmanageable under climate change conditions. The causal loops include the different uses for the available water of the region, the impact of irrigation, the significance of crop selection and the importance of sustainable soil management.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;By analyzing the system this way, we confirmed that climate change poses a risk to the region as elevated temperatures could increase the crop water demand and increase the need for irrigation. In the same way, changes in the rain patterns could affect the water balance of the region. The agricultural system has, however, potential to adapt by implementing new water management strategies such as restructuring water rights, water storage and reuse and conjunctive water use. Other measures include increasing the irrigation efficiency, changing crops and enhancing the soil quality, among others.&lt;/p&gt;

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