Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/11452/34358
Title: What about reservoirs? Questioning anthropogenic and climatic interferences on water availability
Authors: Freer, Jim
Bates, Paul D.
Turp, Mustafa Tufan
Uludağ Üniversitesi/Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi/Coğrafya Bölümü.
0000-0003-2024-0565
0000-0001-8885-9298
Akbaş, Abdullah
Özdemir, Hasan
AAI-6814-2021
Y-4236-2018
57220077716
56663987300
Keywords: Water resources
Climate change
Mediterranean
Reservoir effect
Swat
Water scarcity
Change impacts
Model
Turkey
River
Resources
Simulations
Uncertainty
Calibration
Basin
Mediterranean Sea
Aquifers
Catchments
Climate models
Flow of water
Greenhouse effect
Greenhouse gases
Hydraulics
Hydrogeology
Reservoirs (water)
Soil moisture
Transpiration
Water supply
Economic damages
General circulation model
Mediterranean basin
Mediterranean catchment
Relative concentration
Reservoir storage
Soil and water assessment tool
Water availability
Reservoir
Resource management
Streamflow
Vulnerability
Water management
Water resource
Water supply
Issue Date: Dec-2020
Publisher: Wiley
Citation: Akbaş, A. vd. (2020). "What about reservoirs? Questioning anthropogenic and climatic interferences on water availability". Hydrological Processes, 34(26), 5441-5455.
Abstract: Water resources in semi-arid regions like the Mediterranean Basin are highly vulnerable because of the high variability of weather systems. Additionally, climate change is altering the timing and pattern of water availability in a region where growing populations are placing extra demands on water supplies. Importantly, how reservoirs and dams have an influence on the amount of water resources available is poorly quantified. Therefore, we examine the impact of reservoirs on water resources together with the impact of climate change in a semi-arid Mediterranean catchment. We simulated the Susurluk basin (23.779-km(2)) using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. We generate results for with (RSV) and without reservoirs (WRSV) scenarios. We run simulations for current and future conditions using dynamically downscaled outputs of the MPI-ESM-MR general circulation model under two greenhouse gas relative concentration pathways (RCPs) in order to reveal the coupled effect of reservoir and climate impacts. Water resources were then converted to their usages - blue water (water in aquifers and rivers), green water storage (water in the soil) and green water flow (water losses by evaporation and transpiration). The results demonstrate that all water resources except green water flow are projected to decrease under all RCPs compared to the reference period, both long-term and at seasonal scales. However, while water scarcity is expected in the future, reservoir storage is shown to be adequate to overcome this problem. Nevertheless, reservoirs reduce the availability of water, particularly in soil moisture stores, which increases the potential for drought by reducing streamflow. Furthermore, reservoirs cause water losses through evaporation from their open surfaces. We conclude that pressures to protect society from economic damage by building reservoirs have a strong impact on the fluxes of watersheds. This is additional to the effect of climate change on water resources.
URI: https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.13960
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hyp.13960
http://hdl.handle.net/11452/34358
ISSN: 0885-6087
1099-1085
Appears in Collections:Scopus
Web of Science

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