Submit to Water Review for Water Propose a Special Issue

Journal Browser

► Journal Browser

Analysis of Climate Change and Possible Effects on the Water Environment, Mitigated through Adaptation Strategies

Print Special Issue Flyer
Special Issue Editors
Special Issue Information
Keywords
Published Papers

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Water and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2022) | Viewed by 24280

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Gilberto Pambianchi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Science and Technology, University of Camerino, 62032 Camerino, Italy
Interests: structural geomorphology and morphotectonics; slope processes and landslide risk; geomorphological and geothematic cartography; geomorphological evolution of catchment areas and floodplains
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Matteo Gentilucci

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

School of Science and Technology, University of Camerino, 62032 Camerino, Italy
Interests: climate; climate change; climate modelling by GIS; GIS; geostatistical analyses; agroclimatology; hydrogeological risk; remote sensing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is becoming an increasingly important factor in terms of environmental changes. However, it is often analysed in a sectoral way, highlighting only those changes that seem to be an end in themselves. Due to the persistence of the major global climate change that has been occurring over the past 30 years, a broader view is needed in order to assess its impact on the environment. In particular, this Special Issue is intended to cover many different topics, with a view to preserving the environment from the risks of climate change. It is especially important to assess the effects of climate change on hydrology, such as the management of river basins in the light of the increase in extreme events or the decrease in the persistence of snow cover due to high temperatures. In addition, this Special Issue will focus on geomorphology, assessing the environmental hazards that are amplified or in some cases triggered by climate events, as in the case of certain types of landslides. These two major topics, in addition to the effects of climate change, must also be approached with the aim ofidentifying solutions, where possible for the mitigation of the problem.

Prof. Gilberto Pambianchi
Dr. Matteo Gentilucci
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

climate change
precipitation
hydrology
geomorphology
temperature
landslides
GIS modelling
extreme events
resilience
triggering factors

Published Papers (5 papers)

Download All Papers

Research

Jump to: Review

19 pages, 5619 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Flood Analysis Using HEC-RAS and HEC-HMS: A Case Study of Khazir River (Middle East—Northern Iraq)

by Asaad A. M. AL-Hussein, Shuhab Khan, Kaouther Ncibi, Noureddine Hamdi and Younes Hamed

Water 2022, 14(22), 3779; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14223779 - 21 Nov 2022

Cited by 21 | Viewed by 14140

Abstract

Floods frequently threaten villages near the Khazir River’s floodplains, causing crop losses and threatening residential areas. We used flood-related hydrological software, including WMS and HEC-HMS, to study this issue and determine how to reduce the recurrence of flooding. The software can be used to calculate a hydrograph of torrential flows in a river drainage basin and estimate the volume of torrential water and its flow rates on the Earth’s surface. The depth of rain has been evaluated and calculated in the SCS Unit Hydrograph for different return periods of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 years. According to our study’s findings, the volume of the river’s drainage basin floods ranged between 29,680 and 2,229,200 m³, and the maximum flow value ranged between 10.4 and 66.4 m³/sec during various reference periods. To analyze and model the flood risks of the Khazir River, the HEC-RAS model was combined with the HEC-GeoRAS extension in ArcGIS. The floods were the focus of two study periods, 2013 and 2018, and were based on the digital elevation model and river discharge during the floods. According to the classification map of the flood depths, the areas of flood risk varied from low to very low (80.31%), medium (16.03%), and high to very high (3.8%). The analysis of the results revealed that the villages closest to the river’s mouth were more affected by the floods than other villages further downstream. HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS have been shown to have a strong correlation in evaluating flood risks and reliably forecasting future floods in the study area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Climate Change and Possible Effects on the Water Environment, Mitigated through Adaptation Strategies)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1640 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Effects of Hypoxia on Threshold Food Concentrations in Different Daphnia Species

by Wojciech Wilczynski, Ewa Babkiewicz, Szymon Pukos, Julia Wawrzeńczak, Marcin Lukasz Zebrowski, Łukasz Banasiak, Mark Kudriashov and Piotr Maszczyk

Water 2022, 14(20), 3213; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14203213 - 13 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1791

Abstract

Numerous studies have revealed a negative correlation between the body size and temperature among a variety of aquatic ectotherms. Many studies at individual and population levels indicated that this mechanism may be explained by the decrease of competitive abilities of larger- over smaller-bodied individuals, as the production of larger-bodied individuals is more limited due to greater susceptibility to decreased oxygen concentrations (i.e., environmental hypoxia) at elevated temperatures. However, this hypothesis is still not tested at the community level. To test this, we performed several experiments on the food thresholds (which is a proxy for competitive ability) of 6 zooplankton (Daphnia) species varying in body size, at high or low oxygen concentrations. Contrary to the hypothesis tested, hypoxia increased threshold food concentrations to a relatively greater extent in smaller species than in larger ones. This may be attributed to the better evolutionary adaptations of larger-bodied daphnids to oxygen-poor environments manifested in higher production of haemoglobin. The results obtained in this study cannot exclude the possibility that environmental hypoxia is responsible for the temperature-size pattern in aquatic ectotherms, as our experiments did not take into account the long-term energetic costs of expedited haemoglobin synthesis, which could shift size-dependent competitive power. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Climate Change and Possible Effects on the Water Environment, Mitigated through Adaptation Strategies)

► Show Figures

Graphical abstract

22 pages, 5509 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Climate Adaptation Needs to Reduce Water Scarcity Vulnerability in the Tagus River Basin

by Melissa Nogueira Sondermann and Rodrigo Proença de Oliveira

Water 2022, 14(16), 2527; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14162527 - 17 Aug 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1775

Abstract

In southern Europe, climate change is expected to aggravate water scarcity conditions and challenge current water management practices. The present paper evaluates the impacts of climate change in the highly regulated Tagus River basin and assesses various adaptation options, quantifying the effort needed to maintain the ability to sustain current water uses. A water management and allocation model covering surface and groundwater resources is used to evaluate available and renewable water resources for different climate scenarios. Additionally, the Water Exploitation Index Plus (WEI+) and water supply reliability criteria are used to quantify water scarcity and the ability to satisfy water demands, respectively. The results show that climate change will significantly change the stream flow regime and reduce water availability in the Tagus River basin, but the existing reservoir infrastructure will alleviate some of these impacts, especially in the dry half-year. Until the end of the century, water scarcity levels, measured by annual WEI+, are expected to increase in the Tagus River basin from 0.46 to 0.52 or 0.62, respectively under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP 4.5 or RCP 8.5). The benefits of streamflow regulation vary with the hydrological regimen, the current degree of water use and the role of groundwater resources to meet demand. The benefits of streamflow regulation are also dependent on the environmental flow requirements that will be adopted in the future. A reduction of water consumption for irrigation by 25% to 40% will significantly improve the Tagus River system performance and maintain the current scarcity situation in the future, under the expected scenarios of climate change. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Climate Change and Possible Effects on the Water Environment, Mitigated through Adaptation Strategies)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

21 pages, 4916 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Prediction of Snowmelt Days Using Binary Logistic Regression in the Umbria-Marche Apennines (Central Italy)

by Matteo Gentilucci and Gilberto Pambianchi

Water 2022, 14(9), 1495; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14091495 - 06 May 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2027

Abstract

Snow cover in a mountain area is a physical parameter that induces quite rapid changes in the landscape, from a geomorphological point of view. In particular, snowmelt plays a crucial role in the assessment of avalanche risk, so it is essential to know the days when snowmelt is expected, in order to prepare operational alert levels. Moreover, melting of the snow cover has a direct effect on the recharge of the water table, as well as on the regulation of the vegetative cycle of mountain plants. Therefore, a study on snowmelt, its persistence on the ground, and the height of the snow cover in the Umbria-Marche Apennines in central Italy is of great interest, since this is an area that is extremely poorly sampled and analysed. This study was conducted on the basis of four mountain weather stations equipped with a recently installed sonar-based snow depth gauge, so that a relatively short period, 2010–2020, was evaluated. A trend analysis revealed non-significant decreases in snow cover height and snow persistence time, in contrast to the significant increasing trend of mean temperature, while parameters such as relative humidity and wind speed did not appear to have a dominant trend. Further analysis showed relationships between snowmelt and the climatic parameters considered, leading to the definition of a mathematical model developed using the binary logistic regression technique, and having a predictive power of 82.6% in the case of days with snowmelt on the ground. The aim of this study was to be a first step towards models aimed at preventing avalanche risk, hydrological risk, and plant species adaptation, as well as providing a more complete definition of the climate of the study area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Climate Change and Possible Effects on the Water Environment, Mitigated through Adaptation Strategies)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

26 pages, 601 KiB

Open AccessReview

Hydrological Modelling and Climate Adaptation under Changing Climate: A Review with a Focus in Sub-Saharan Africa

by Vincent Dzulani Banda, Rimuka Bloodless Dzwairo, Sudhir Kumar Singh and Thokozani Kanyerere

Water 2022, 14(24), 4031; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/w14244031 - 10 Dec 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3805

Abstract

Empirical evidence continues to show that climate change remains a threat to the stability of the hydrologic system. As the climate system interacts with the hydrologic cycle, one significant repercussion of global warming includes changes in water availability at both regional and local scales. Climate change adaptation is intrinsically difficult to attain due to the dynamic earth system and lack of a comprehensive understanding of future climate and its associated uncertainties. Mostly in developing countries, climate adaptation is hampered by scarcity of good quality and adequate hydro-meteorological data. This article provides a synopsis of the modelling chain applied to investigate the response of the hydrologic system under changing climate, which includes choosing the appropriate global climate models, downscaling techniques, emission scenarios, and the approach to be used in hydrologic modelling. The conventional criteria for choosing a suitable hydrological model are discussed. The advancement of emission scenarios including the latest Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their role in climate modelling, impact assessment, and adaptation, are also highlighted. This paper also discusses the uncertainties associated with modelling the hydrological impacts of climate change and the plausible approaches for reducing such uncertainties. Among the outcomes of this review include highlights of studies on the commonly used hydrological models for assessing the impact of climate change particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa region and some specific reviews in southern Africa. Further, the reviews show that as human systems keep on dominating within the earth system in several ways, effective modelling should involve coupling earth and human systems models as these may truly represent the bidirectional feedback experienced in the modern world. The paper concludes that adequate hydro-meteorological data is key to having a robust model and effective climate adaptation measures, hence in poorly gauged basins use of artificial neural networks and satellite datasets have shown to be successful tools, including for model calibration and validation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Analysis of Climate Change and Possible Effects on the Water Environment, Mitigated through Adaptation Strategies)

► Show Figures