Adaptation of water resources management under climate change

Abstract

The rapid growth of demand in agricultural production has created water scarcity issues worldwide. Simultaneously, climate change scenarios have projected that more frequent and severe droughts are likely to occur. Adaptive water resources management has been suggested as one strategy to better coordinate surface water and groundwater resources (i.e., conjunctive water use) to address droughts. In this study, we enhanced an aggregated water resource management tool that represents integrated agriculture, water, energy, and social systems. We applied this tool to the Yakima River Basin (YRB) in Washington State, USA. We selected four indicators of system resilience and sustainability to evaluate four adaptation methods associated with adoption behaviors in alleviating drought impacts on agriculture under RCP4.5 and RCP 8.5 climate change scenarios. We analyzed the characteristics of four adaptation methods, including greenhouses, crop planting time, irrigation technology, and managed aquifer recharge as well as alternating supply and demand dynamics to overcome drought impact. The results show that climate conditions with severe and consecutive droughts require more financial and natural resources to achieve well-implemented adaptation strategies. For long-term impact analysis, managed aquifer recharge appeared to be a cost-effective and easy-to-adopt option, whereas water entitlements are likely to get exhausted during multiple consecutive drought events. Greenhouses and water-efficient technologies are more effective in improving irrigation reliability under RCP 8.5 when widely adopted. However, implementing all adaptation methods together is the only way to alleviate most of the drought impacts projected in the future. The water resources management tool helps stakeholders and researchers gain insights in the roles of modern inventions in agricultural water cycle dynamics in the context of interactive multi-sector systems.

Adapting Water and Soil Management to Climate Change

“…Sustainable agriculture largely depends on the stability of the soil ecosystem and the hydrological cycle dynamics [1]. Thus, the agricultural sector's top concerns are the impact of climate change on soil quality and irrigation water availability and quality [2]. Climate change is already changing the frequency and severity of heat waves, droughts, and floods, which further deteriorate soil and water resources.…”

The Dialectics of Nature–Human Conflicts for Sustainable Water Security

“…Therefore, how countries allocate their natural water resources to various socio-economic sectors, and how these sectors manage water, is crucial to achieving economic growth and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) [1]. Climate change has recently induced unprecedented natural disasters, such as heat waves, forest fires, floods, and droughts [4], challenging the way water resources are managed. Since the Second Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases has continuously increased.…”

Transboundary water resources management and food security: An Indonesian perspective

“…Undoubtedly, the management of water resources will be impacted by climate change and its variability (Gupta et al, 2022; Li & Urban, 2016; Rahaman et al, 2022; Agoh et al, 2021; Zhao & Boll, 2022). One way to illustrate this is to consider a scenario in which a region experiences drought due to a lack of precipitation.…”