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Regional Assessment of Climate Change in the Mediterranean pp 241–306Cite as

Impacts of Climate Change on Freshwater Bodies: Quantitative Aspects

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Part of the book series: Advances in Global Change Research ((AGLO,volume 50))

Abstract

In this chapter we present the results of the impact assessment on freshwater bodies in the Mediterranean region. Starting from the characterization of the general features of Mediterranean hydrology, main focus is given on large river basins discharging into the Mediterranean sea as well as to small and medium scale catchments representing almost half of the entire discharging basin. Groundwater representing a fundamental water resource for Mediterranean countries was also considered. Climate change impacts on the hydrological behavior of large river basins is investigated through the IRIS computational tool which was proved to be a versatile instrument for both climate studies and the assessment of model ability to simulate the hydrological cycle at catchment scale, taking advantage of the available observed discharge series to evaluate the reliability of future discharge projections. The results regarding some representative Mediterranean rivers using multiple climate models developed inside Circe have highlighted an open spread among twenty-first century projections. The problem of the effective information content of climate model simulations with respect to small scale impact studies is developed at the scale of medium and small catchments. Particularly at the space-time scales needed to describe the terrestrial water cycle in Mediterranean environments this is recognized among the most difficult problems facing both science and society. Therefore downscaling and bias-correction requirements have been treated in this chapter through specific methodologies which integrate dynamical downscaling with statistical downscaling always adopting ground based observation of climate variables as a powerful means to obtain more robust climate forcing for hydrological models. The assessment of climate change impacts on small and medium size catchments is developed through some representative case studies in which downscaling methodologies have been applied thanks to the availability of dense climate measurement networks. The impact assessment of water resources in the Apulia region (southern Italy) revealed a marked increase in the variability of hydrologic regimes as consequence of the increased rainfall variability predicted for the twenty-first century. Conversely only slight decreasing trends were detected in the annual water balance components. Similar results were found on a carbonate aquifer in Southern Italy in which a large Apennine spring have been selected as a significant hydrogeological systems with minimal anthropogenic pressures in the recharge areas. Finally a specific session is dedicated to the role of artificial dams in reducing the possible impacts of climate change. In particular, methodologies for the assessment of optimal dam dimensioning under climate change are presented as well as a reliability assessment based on water supply and demand imbalances.

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Acknowledgments

The chapter ‘Impacts of Climate Change on Freshwater Bodies: Quantitative Aspects’ has been realized by the following authors contribution:

Section 9.1 Ivan Portoghese, Michele Vurro – IRSA-CNR

Section 9.2 Maria Vittoria Struglia, Giovanna Pisacane – ENEA

Section 9.3 Ivan Portoghese, Nicolas Guyennon, Emanuela Bruno, Michele Vurro – IRSA-CNR

Section 9.4 Hypatia Nassopoulos, Patrice Dumas, Stéphane Hallegatte, Jean-Charles Hourcade

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy, (CNR-IRSA), Bari, Italy

    Ivan Portoghese, Emanuela Bruno & Michele Vurro

  2. Centre International de Recherche sur l’Agriculture et le Développement, CIRAD, Paris, France

    Patrice Dumas

  3. Water Research Institute, National Research Council of Italy, (CNR-IRSA), Rome, Italy

    Nicolas Guyennon

  4. Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement & Ecole Nationale de la Météorologie, Nogent-sur-Marne, France

    Stéphane Hallegatte

  5. Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement, CIRED-CNRS, Nogent-sur-Marne, France

    Jean-Charles Hourcade & Hypatia Nassopoulos

  6. Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, ENEA, Rome, Italy

    Giovanna Pisacane & Maria Vittoria Struglia

Authors
  1. Ivan Portoghese
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  2. Emanuela Bruno
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  3. Patrice Dumas
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  4. Nicolas Guyennon
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  5. Stéphane Hallegatte
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  6. Jean-Charles Hourcade
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  7. Hypatia Nassopoulos
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  8. Giovanna Pisacane
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  9. Maria Vittoria Struglia
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  10. Michele Vurro
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Correspondence to Ivan Portoghese .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Climate Change (CMCC), Euro-Mediterranean Center on, via Augusto Imperatore 16, Lecce, 73100, Italy

    Antonio Navarra

  2. IDDRI SciencesPo, rue du Four 41, Paris, 75006, France

    Laurence Tubiana

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Portoghese, I. et al. (2013). Impacts of Climate Change on Freshwater Bodies: Quantitative Aspects. In: Navarra, A., Tubiana, L. (eds) Regional Assessment of Climate Change in the Mediterranean. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 50. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5781-3_9

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