What is it about?
Irrigation for agriculture is fundamental in the Serpis River Basin (Spain), with 72% of its water used for agricultural purposes. However, the basin is also facing increasing climate change impacts. This study proposes an extension of the eco-engineering decision scaling (EEDS) method to assess the trade-offs between agricultural and environmental (river habitat) metrics under a range of future hydrological and climate conditions. The extended EEDS method is applied to the Serpis River Basin to evaluate current water resource management rules, identify potential climate hazards, and assess climate risk over three time horizons. The results suggest that adaptive water management strategies are essential to ensure the long-term sustainability of agriculture and ecosystem health in the Serpis River Basin.
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Why is it important?
Because many river basins worldwide are facing similar threats of climate change. The eco-engineering decision scaling (EEDS) method is very useful to assess the trade-offs between agricultural and environmental metrics under a range of future hydrological and climate conditions. With the generated information, a vulnerability analysis was done; that means the user can determine in which combination of metrics (hydrological, management variables, environmental) the system will be threaten, for instance of failure of water supply for irrigation, or below certain thresholds of habitat for species survival. All those considerations, defined by several stakeholders, can be considered together thanks to the EEDS approach.
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This page is a summary of: Vulnerability assessment for climate adaptation planning in a Mediterranean basin, Hydrological Sciences Journal, June 2023, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/02626667.2023.2219397.
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