Author(s): Clara Estrela-Segrelles; Miguel Angel Perez-Martin

Linked Author(s): Clara Estrela-Segrelles

Keywords: Water management; Climate Change; Adaptation; Risk Analysis

Abstract: Climate change is defined as global variation of the Earth's climate. This variation occurs at various time scales and over all climatic parameters such as temperature or precipitation. Its impacts are widespread and substantial. Climate change studies show that the Mediterranean area is one of the most vulnerable zones to climate change. Most of the impacts of climate change are attributed to warming and changes in precipitation patterns. Water-temperature increase will affect the ecosystems associated with water bodies and water uses. This work establishes a methodology to determine the hazard, exposure, impact, vulnerability, and risk maps associated with different climate change scenarios in a River Basin District (RBD), which are a tool to prioritize the adaptation measures to be applied in the RBD. The risk maps are derived from the hazard, exposure and vulnerability maps. The results of this work show that the impacts of climate change on the riverine biota such as cold-water fish species and macroinvertebrates, the effect in the dissolved oxygen and the coastal wetland ecosystems are relevant. In relation with macroinvertebrate families, climate change may produce a variation in the number of individuals in the 35% of families in the forthcoming years and a variation in the number of individuals of practically all macroinvertebrate families that inhabit the Júcar RBD at the end of the 21st century. Risk maps highlight the importance to develop adaptation measures in order to improve resilience to climate change impacts, which become more intense as the 21st century progresses.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC252171192022130

Year: 2022