BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars: Assessment climate change adaptation policies for surface water availability in Mediterranean Europe

BC3-UPV/EHU Seminars
“Assessment climate change adaptation policies for surface water availability in Mediterranean Europe “

Prof. Luis Maria Garrote
Full Professor at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM)
Dept. of Civil Engineering; Hydraulic and Energy  

Abstract

Population growth, scarce water resources, climate change, environmental concerns and economic development are just a few of many factors that challenge water management in Southern Europe. Most climate models agree that Southern Europe will face a significant drying trend during the second half of the century, challenging water policy in the region to ensure future sustainability. In this seminar we discuss how much water demand might be met with future hydrologic regime from the policy perspective. We present a methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative policy options to ensure adequate supply to irrigation demands. The methodology is based on the application of the WAAPA (Water Availability and Adaptation Policy Assessment) model, which performs the simulation of water resources systems at the monthly time scale and allows the estimation of the demand-reliability curve in every subbasin of the river network. The model was applied to 47 River Basin Districts in Southern Europe to estimate water availability under different climate change projections and several adaptation policy scenarios. The target of adaptation policy was defined in terms of maintaining an acceptable reliability of water supply to irrigation demands in future time horizons. Several possible options, like reducing irrigation
demands, increasing the efficiency of water use or changing the allocation to environmental flows were analyzed and compared in quantitative terms. The results show significant regional disparities in effectiveness of the different adaptation policies across Europe

Lecturer

Referenced paper of the Seminar:
1- “WAAPA : A model for water availability and climate change adaptation policy analysis”
2- “Quantitative Assessment of Climate Change Vulnerability of Irrigation Demands in Mediterranean Europe”wra2011paper garrote
Curriculum Vitae Prof. Luis Maria Garrote
For further information about the lecturer, please visit Prof. Luis Garrotes’ personal website at:  http://www.upm.es/observatorio/vi/index.jsp?pageac=investigador.jsp&idInvestigador=8855