Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

Drought risk under climate and land use changes: Implication to water resource availability at catchment scale

Afzal, Muhammad and Ragab, Ragab 2019. Drought risk under climate and land use changes: Implication to water resource availability at catchment scale. Water 11 (9) , 1790. 10.3390/w11091790

[thumbnail of water-11-01790.pdf] PDF - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (5MB)

Abstract

Although the climate change projections are produced by global models, studying the impact of climatic change on water resources is commonly investigated at catchment scale where the measurements are taken, and water management decisions are made. For this study, the Frome catchment in the UK was investigated as an example of midland England. The DiCaSM model was applied using the UKCP09 future climate change scenarios. The climate projections indicate that the greatest decrease in groundwater recharge and streamflow was projected under high emission scenarios in the 2080s. Under the medium and high emission scenarios, model results revealed that the frequency and severity of drought events would be the highest. The drought indices, the Reconnaissance Drought Index, RDI, Soil Moisture Deficit, SMD and Wetness Index, WI, predicted an increase in the severity of future drought events under the high emission scenarios. Increasing broadleaf forest area would decrease streamflow and groundwater recharge. Urban expansion could increase surface runoff. Decreasing winter barley and grass and increasing oil seed rape, would increase SMD and slightly decrease river flow. Findings of this study are helpful in the planning and management of the water resources considering the impact of climate and land use changes on variability in the availability of surface and groundwater resources.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Earth and Environmental Sciences
Publisher: MDPI
ISSN: 2073-4441
Funders: NERC
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 3 September 2019
Date of Acceptance: 24 August 2019
Last Modified: 22 May 2023 08:47
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/125253

Citation Data

Cited 18 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics