Question:
Discuss about the Climate Change Impact on Water Resources.
The climate change refers to the change in the statistical distribution of the various weather patterns that lasts for an extended period. The climate change is also the change in the average conditions of the weather or the time difference of the weather that occurs in a long-term. The causes of the climate change are the biotic processes and the human activities that are being performed. These factors are called as the climate forcing which are the processes as the radiation from the sun, the variations in the orbit of the earth, the changes in the concentration of the green house gases and the continental drifting (Hagemann et al. 2013). The human activities that affect the change in climate are the called as the anthropogenic factors. These changes are largely irreversible (Change 2014). There is an increase in the carbon dioxide levels due to the emissions from the combustion of the fossil fuels. The other factors responsible for the changes are the depletion of ozone, deforestation, and land use and so on. These changes lead to the unprecedented warming of the earth (Kløve et al. 2014). The humans are considered the major cause of Global Warming. The water resources are the sources of water that are useful in nature. Water pollution is one of the main concerns. The pollutants threaten the supply of water.
Figure1 Source: (Field 2012).
The discussion elaborates on the process of climate change and the factors affecting the changes in the climate have been discussed in this report. The report also discusses the various issues surrounding this topic. There are a few challenges that are faced due o the climate change and its impact. The ways to overcome the challenges that arise from this climate change has been discussed in this report. The review paper shows an in-depth understanding of the climate change and its impact on the water resources. The report concludes with the knowledge and the future research direction.
The water cycle is the theoretical basis of the study of affects of the climate change o the water resources. The hydrological cycle is restricted by the climate. The climate change causes a change in the water cycle due to the climate conditions. The climate change directly or indirectly affects the process of the circulation of water by temperature, humidity, sunlight, wind and precipitation (Field 2012). The system of natural water cycle is affected by the sun radiation and earth’s gravity. The water on the earth absorbs the solar heat energy and spreads everywhere in the appropriate conditions and the environment. The climate change has directly led to the precipitation and the runoff process that relates to the water cycle. The continuous change in the human society and the activities performed by the humans influences the evolution process of the water cycle. This water cycle system is called as the natural artificial binary water cycle system. This influence of the activities of the humans on the hydrologic cycle has two types of situations mainly; the direct intervention of the humans that cause the change changes in the hydrologic cycle and the other is caused due to the part change because of the human activities (Velázquez et al. 2013).
The relationship between water energy and the climate is an important one. The climate change is the phenomenon that leads to the rise in the temperature of the earth. This rise in the temperature causes the glacial ice to melt at an unparalleled rate. The glaciers are an important source for the freshwater worldwide. Once these have meted these glaciers cannot be restored. The increase in the temperature also causes in the increase in the rate of the evaporation that may result in droughts. This warming of the environment will cause the increase in rainfall and reduce the amount of snowfall (Schewe et al. 2014). This in turn may cause frequent water shortages. The climate change affects the water resources with the impact on amount, changeability, form, time and the intensity of precipitation. The rise in the temperature of the surface increases the proportion of the precipitation during the winters. The climate change affects the water quality in both the inland and the coastal areas (Taylor et al. 2013). The high intensity rainfall will cause an increase in the runoff and erosion. There will be thus the impairing of the quality of the water due to the transportation of sediments and chemical runoff in huge amounts into the streams and the groundwater systems.
Figure Source 2: (Kates, Travis and Wilbanks 2012).
The climate has an effect on the water resources. This comprises of the melting of the glaciers and its influence on the river flow patter, variability of the rainfall and impact on the monsoon system that affects the availability of the water and the rise in the seas level. The current and the future scenarios of the climate predictions and variability in the different hydro-geological system is also a challenge. The status of the glaciers and their influence has an impact on the natural water system.
The climate change affects the groundwater recharge rates that are the renewable groundwater resources and the depth of the table of groundwater (Trenberth et al. 2014). The increase in the variability of precipitation may decrease the recharge of groundwater in the humid areas as the heavy precipitation may cause excess infiltration capacity of the soil. The depletion of the ground water may be a threat the irrigated agriculture that may exceed the level of salts in the soil. The rise in the sea levels may also cause the increase of the saline intrusion in the coastal and the inland aquifers (Dai 2013). The increase in the regularity and rigorousness of the floods may have an affect o the ground water quality in the alluvial aquifers. The warm air keeps the moisture and tends to increase the evaporation of the surface moisture. If there is, no more moisture in the soil to evaporate the solar radiation causes the rise in the temperature. That may cause severe droughts (Luo et al. 2015).
The research of the impact of the climate change on the water resources systems is with the help of the basin temperature, precipitation and the evaporation change that is caused by the climate change that predicts the increase and decrease of the runoff and watershed supply influence. Due to the complexity and the uncertainty climate change, it is not easy to predict the future climate change (Kates, Travis and Wilbanks 2012). The climate change will cause global rainfall and change in temperature of time and space distribution that will also cause a change in the river basin runoff. The hydrological simulation technology is used to solve the variables of hydrological information under the climate scenario basin. The scenario is the prediction and the expectation that describe the scene of a series of events and the factors that affect the future emissions (Gosling and Arnell 2016). The experience statistical model is based on the temperature, precipitation and runoff. The climate change scene generation technology has changed from simple analysis and transplantation data to considering the development of the green house gas emissions.
There is limited information on the climate change effects. The issues of the climate change are very vaguely available (Marlow et al. 2013). There is an inadequacy in the early warning systems strategy. It is important to share the meteorological information along with the climate change projection that communicates the reliable information on the weather conditions and threats. This is relevant for the monitoring of the climate change stressors as the floods, droughts and enabling the preparation of the warning measures for the people. The climate change furthers the pressure on the water resources but the response to the climate change threats have not been responded to. The adaptation measures that are implemented are reactive and in response to the immediate threats. The fresh water is a scarce resource (Haasnoot et al. 2012). The issues about the availability focus on the water security to satisfy the needs of the humans that refers to the access of the people to safe and affordable water. The water security can arise due to the physical scarcity that results due to the climatic factors (Bakker 2012). This scarcity and insecurity affects large parts of the world. The water security in the developing world is vulnerable to the impact of the climate change due to the changing water supplies. The change in the climate increases the water management problems through the impact on the melting glaciers, rise in the sea levels, variable rainfall, floods and droughts. The major challenges arise during the management of the natural resources (Teutschbein and Seibert 2012). Then there is the challenges faced by the water resource use and allocation because of the increase in the scarcity of water along with the risks of the climate change.
Figure3 Source: (Rahm and Riha 2012).
There has to be effective governance and responsive policies that enable sustainable water management (Qaiser et al. 2013). The issues that are to be highlighted understand the policy implications of the climate change and identification of new adaptive measures to reduce the vulnerability. The emphasis on the climate centric development, strategic development activities and mainstreaming of the change in the climate into the institutional reforms is necessary (Rahm and Riha 2012). The recommendation of the renewed policy priorities for the security of water due to the change in the climate is important (Pereira, Cordery and Iacovides 2012). The water problems arise from the failure to meet the basic human needs and ineffective management (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2014). Hence, the need for sustainable management is necessary. The existing technologies should be used to save the water resources. Thus, there should be conservation of water resources as there is the scarcity of the water resources due the impact of the change in the climate.
Figure4 Source: (Qaiser et al. 2013).
The conservation of water is very important due to the rapid changes that have occurred due to the change in the climate. The conservation of water includes the various policies, strategies and the activities that are made for the sustainable management of the natural water resources that are available. This is necessary so that the future generations can also satisfy their needs. The goals for the conservation of water include the ensuring of the availability of water for the future generation where the withdrawal of the freshwater from the ecosystem will not exceed the rate of the natural replacement (Qaiser et al. 2013). There needs to be conservation of the energy because of the management of water. There also has to be the conservation of habitats to enable the minimization of the human water use.
Conclusion
Thereby, the report concludes the discussion that elaborates on the process of climate change and the factors affecting the changes in the climate have been discussed in this report. The report also discusses the various issues surrounding this topic. There are a few challenges that are faced due o the climate change and its impact. The ways to overcome the challenges that arise from this climate change has been discussed in this report. The review paper shows an in-depth understanding of the climate change and its impact on the water resources. The causes of the climate change are the biotic processes and the human activities that are being performed. These factors are called as the climate forcing which are the processes as the radiation from the sun, the variations in the orbit of the earth, the changes in the concentration of the green house gases and the continental drifting. The research of the impact of the climate change on the water resources systems is with the help of the basin temperature, precipitation and the evaporation change that is caused by the climate change that predicts the increase and decrease of the runoff and watershed supply influence.
References
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Change, I.P.O.C., 2014. IPCC. Climate change.
Dai, A., 2013. Increasing drought under global warming in observations and models. Nature Climate Change, 3(1), pp.52-58.
Field, C.B. ed., 2012. Managing the risks of extreme events and disasters to advance climate change adaptation: special report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge University Press.
Gosling, S.N. and Arnell, N.W., 2016. A global assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity. Climatic Change, 134(3), pp.371-385.
Haasnoot, M., Middelkoop, H., Offermans, A., Van Beek, E. and Van Deursen, W.P., 2012. Exploring pathways for sustainable water management in river deltas in a changing environment. Climatic Change, 115(3-4), pp.795-819.
Hagemann, S., Chen, C., Clark, D., Folwell, S., Gosling, S.N., Haddeland, I., Hannasaki, N., Heinke, J., Ludwig, F., Voss, F. and Wiltshire, A., 2013. Climate change impact on available water resources obtained using multiple global climate and hydrology models. Earth System Dynamics, 4, pp.129-144.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014. Climate Change 2014–Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability: Regional Aspects. Cambridge University Press.
Kates, R.W., Travis, W.R. and Wilbanks, T.J., 2012. Transformational adaptation when incremental adaptations to climate change are insufficient. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(19), pp.7156-7161.
Kløve, B., Ala-Aho, P., Bertrand, G., Gurdak, J.J., Kupfersberger, H., Kværner, J., Muotka, T., Mykrä, H., Preda, E., Rossi, P. and Uvo, C.B., 2014. Climate change impacts on groundwater and dependent ecosystems. Journal of Hydrology, 518, pp.250-266.
Luo, B., Maqsood, I., Yin, Y.Y., Huang, G.H. and Cohen, S.J., 2015. Adaption to climate change through water trading under uncertainty-an inexact two-stage nonlinear programming approach. Journal of Environmental Informatics, 2(2), pp.58-68.
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