Sustainable Water resources management in Semi-Arid regions of Algeria using the WEAP model

What is it about?

The paper aims to assess water availability and demand under multiple scenarios that could plausibly unfold in the future, considering uncertain factors, such as climate change, policy options, technological development, and human behavior change, using the Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP) model. The WEAP model was used to assess water availability and demand under multiple scenarios that could plausibly unfold until 2035. For this purpose, five scenarios were analyzed in this study. The first scenario, the Business-As-Usual scenario, represents a continuation of current water demand and supply trends, including recently implemented water resource projects. The second scenario, the Expansion of Large Irrigated Perimeters scenario, considers the situation when all planned large-scale irrigation projects and small and medium-scale irrigation systems are fully real¬ized in the study area. The third scenario, the Integrated Policy scenario, analyzes the impacts of both supply-side and demand-side water management to achieve a greater level of sustainability. The fourth and fifth scenarios assess the impact of climate change on water availability based on the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 multi-model ensemble dataset for two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios.

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Photo by Salah Ait Mokhtar on Unsplash

Photo by Salah Ait Mokhtar on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Situated in the semi-arid region of Southwestern Algeria, El Bayadh faces significant environmental challenges, including water scarcity, desertification, land degradation, and water-related aspects of climate change, such as droughts and floods, which have significantly impacted the economic development of the region, particularly for both agricultural and water-resources sectors (Belaroui et al. 2013; Benaradj et al. 2019; Kadri and Nasrallah 2023). Flash floods and associated silt deposition are other major challenges associated with surface water projects. In this context, it should be noted that most of the hillside dams were decommissioned due to heavy siltation, which accelerated their transforma¬tion into dead projects. Moreover, six hillside dams were completely destroyed by the frequent flash floods that hit the region in October 2008 (Sogreah 2009; MRE 2010). The abovementioned challenges highlight the need for a more holistic and sustainable approach that involves the identification of vulnerability and adaptation possibilities, followed by analyzing their effects under a variety of future scenarios (Haasnoot et al. 2009).

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