Assessment of Future Climate Change Impact on an Agricultural Reservoir in South Korea

Jaenam Lee,Hyungjin Shin

doi:10.3390/w13152125

Abstract

Drought has been frequently occurring in South Korea due to climate change. Analyzing the water supply capacity of the water resource system provides essential information for water resource management. This study evaluates the future water supply capacity of the Gwanghye (GH) agricultural reservoir based on the representative concentration pathways 4.5 and 8.5 climate change scenarios. We performed a reservoir simulation by reflecting the full water level of the reservoir before and after reservoir heightening. Climate change is expected to decrease the GH reservoir’s future available water resources due to the overall reduction in the reservoir’s runoff. After the reservoir-heightening project, an overall improvement was observed in the stability of the future irrigation water supply. Moreover, the remaining water after the supply of the irrigation water could supply 0.6–7.2 × 103 m3 of daily instream water. Thus, flexible reservoir operations are necessary according to climate change scenarios and the reservoir operation period. The use of climate change information should be expanded to establish reasonable water management policies for future climate change scenarios.

Highlights

Frequent droughts caused by climate change have led to global water shortage issues [1]
The objective of this study was to assess the future water supply capacity of an agricultural reservoir in South Korea based on representative concentration pathway (RCP) climate change scenarios
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the future water supply capacity of an agricultural reservoir based on the RCP 4.5 and 8.5 climate change scenarios

Summary

Introduction

Frequent droughts caused by climate change have led to global water shortage issues [1]. Numerous studies have investigated climate change issues, such as insufficient water storage in water resource facilities, algae occurrence, and agricultural productivity changes [4,5,6]. As climate change increases the water cycle variability, it is critical to identify the impact of climate change on water supply and demand in dams and reservoirs. Many researchers worldwide have studied the impact of climate change on water resource facilities. Payne et al [7] researched the effect of climate change on a reservoirs’ operation in the Columbia River watershed in the United States. Gohari et al [8] predicted a future agricultural water shortage due to climate change in the Chadegan reservoir in the Zayandeh-Rud River watershed in Iran. Fujihara et al [9] demonstrated that an increase in farmland would cause water shortages in the Seyhan and Catalan dams in the Seyhan

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