Water vulnerability assessment to climate change in the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean

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Last Updated November 10, 2017, 09:23 (UTC)
Created November 10, 2017, 09:21 (UTC)
E-mail j.arevalo@unesco.org
Language Eng
Title in original language Water vulnerability assessment to climate change in the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean (Morocco-Spain)
Original language English
Abstract The Mediterranean basin has been identified as one of the regions in the world most vulnerable to global change effects. Drought trends in the Mediterranean have increased significantly in the last decades registering serious economic, social, and environmental consequences resulting in land degradation, human migrations, famine, diseases, and loss of human life. However, the impacts are unevenly distributed in the area creating a S-N gradient of decreasing intensity. Global and regional climate change scenarios foresee a growth of the average annual temperature higher than planet’s mean projecting an increasing frequency of drought episodes adding to the complexity of water scarcity management and its future sustainability. This study focuses on the potential water vulnerability in the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean (IBRM), located in the western side of the Mediterranean basin between Spain (Europe) and Morocco (Africa). The vulnerability assessment was based on the use of a set of scenarios of climate change, the application of a hydro-ecological model, as well as the participation of stakeholders and local experts. This crosscutting approach identified main impacts expected in the reserve and scored their relevance. The results identify the IBRM vulnerability degree to global change and propose relevant adaptation strategies and actions to local and national policy makers. These recommendations need to be introduced following an integrated implementation framework into the shared IBRM management plan and the national strategies in both countries in order to adapt to global change effects in the region.
License CC-BY-4.0
Classification Climatology
Creation date 2012-11-01
INSPIRE theme Hydrography
Free keywords Intercontinental Bioshpere Reserve of the Mediterranean
Vocabulary title impacts, pressures, adaptative capacity
Responsible party CREAF
Responsible party email d.pascual@creaf.uab.es
Responsible party role Author
Spatial extent - North 36.97
Spatial extent - South 34.8
Spatial extent - East -4.68
Spatial extent - West -5.84

Dataset extent