Abstract
Countries in Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) are considered as arid and semi-arid areas that are suffering from water scarcity. They are expected to have more water shortages problem due to climatic change. Iraq is located in the Middle East covering an area of 433,970 square kilometers populated by 31 million inhabitants. One of the solutions suggested to overcome water scarcity is Rainwater Harvesting (RWH). In this study Macro rainwater harvesting technique had been tested for future rainfall data that were predicted by two emission scenarios of climatic change (A2 and B2) for the period 2020-2099 at Sulaimaniyah Governorate north east of Iraq. Future volumes of total runoff that might be harvested for different conditions of maximum, average, and minimum future rainfall seasons under both scenarios (A2 and B2) were calculated. The results indicate that the volumes of average harvested runoff will be reduced when average rainfall seasons are considered due to the effect of climatic change on future rainfall. The reduction reached 10.82 % and 43.0% when scenarios A2 and B2 are considered respectively.
Highlights
Water resources are very scarce in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) [1]-[4] where the annual rainfall does not exceed 166 mm [2] for this reason; it contains hyper-arid, arid and semi-arid zones [5]
The last study was at Sulaimaniyah Governorate, Kurdistan region of Iraq, the results indicated that the average annual rainfall showed a significant downward trend for both A2 and B2 scenarios for the period 1961-2099
Watershed modelling system (WMS) was used to estimate the harvested runoff at the selected five basins at Sulaimaniyah Governorate based on Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the study area
Summary
Water resources are very scarce in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA region) [1]-[4] where the annual rainfall does not exceed 166 mm [2] for this reason; it contains hyper-arid, arid and semi-arid zones [5]. While for B2 storyline and scenario family, a world in which the emphasis was on local solutions to economic, social, and environmental sustainability was considered It is a world with continuously increasing global population at a rate lower than A2; intermediate levels of economic development are less rapid and more diverse technological change than in the B1 and A1 storylines, while the scenario is oriented toward environmental protection and social equity, it focuses on local and regional levels. The precipitation patterns will be modified leading to extreme events which will affect the availability of water resources in tropical and Mediterranean areas [28] [29] and this will significantly affect sectors like agriculture, industry and urban development [30]. The precipitation is very likely to be reduced almost 20% in the period 2071-2100 compared to 1961-1990, under SRES A1B
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