The Influence of Climate and Land-Cover Scenarios on Dam Management Strategies in a High Water Pressure Catchment in Northeast Spain

J Zabalza-Martínez,C Tague,J López-Moreno,S Vicente-Serrano,E Pla,F Domínguez-Castro,E Morán-Tejeda,D Pascual,G Borràs Calvo,R Savé

doi:10.3390/w10111668

Abstract

This paper evaluates the response of streamflow in a Mediterranean medium-scaled basin under land-use and climate change scenarios and its plausible implication on the management of Boadella–Darnius reservoir (NE Spain). Land cover and climate change scenarios supposed over the next several decades were used to simulate reservoir inflow using the Regional Hydro-Ecologic Simulation System (RHESsys) and to analyze the future impacts on water management (2021–2050). Results reveal a clear decrease in dam inflow (−34%) since the dam was operational from 1971 to 2013. The simulations obtained with RHESsys show a similar decrease (−31%) from 2021 to 2050. Considering the ecological minimum flow outlined by water authorities and the projected decrease in reservoir’s inflows, different water management strategies are needed to mitigate the effects of the expected climate change.

Highlights

Water resources in the Mediterranean region are often overallocated and cannot meet the multiple demand for water for human activities including urban supply [1], irrigation [2,3], and tourism activities [4,5,6,7]
Under the current management strategies, the maintenance of current water demands will not be possible under projected climate and land cover scenarios
This study highlights the effects of climate and land-use changes and the combined action on the streamflow of a Mediterranean mountain basin and the conclusions are as follows:

Summary

Introduction

Water resources in the Mediterranean region are often overallocated and cannot meet the multiple demand for water for human activities including urban supply [1], irrigation [2,3], and tourism activities [4,5,6,7]. Most of the available water in this region has its source in mountain headwaters [8,9,10]. The fields that had been cultivated several decades ago are colonized by shrubs or forests with different degrees of succession as a function of the local environmental and climatic conditions (slope, orientation, elevation, etc.), and in many locations the revegetation process has been accelerated by afforestation initiatives [8]. Different studies have shown that these revegetation processes have had a strong impact on runoff production in the Mediterranean mountain

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion