Coupling scenarios of climate and land-use change with assessments of potential ecosystem services at the river basin scale

Abstract

Climate and land-use changes are posing increasing threats to freshwater-related ecosystem services, acting both on the supply and the demand side. A better understanding of the dynamics of these potential services, driven by the interactions between the factors mentioned above, could bring benefits to water resources management, the environment, and human well-being. In this work, we developed an integrated modeling approach to assess the conjoined impacts of land-use and climate changes on the potential ecosystem services (i.e. water yield and nutrients retention) until 2050. This approach was applied to the Taro River basin in Italy.Firstly, the results showed a 20% reduction in water yield was driven mainly by the increases in evapotranspiration demand and changes in rainfall patterns. Furthermore, a mean decrease of approximately 3% of the total nitrogen retention and a mean increase of 3% for the total phosphorus retention could be mainly attributed to land-use changes. Secondly, the rate of change would be different over time with the most pronounced differences between 2020 and 2030 and slower variations afterward. Finally, the obtained results could be a valuable support to identify and prioritize the best management practices for sustainable water use, balancing the tradeoffs among services.