Regional climate change projections and hydrological impact analysis for a Mediterranean basin in Southern Italy

SummaryA number of future water availability scenarios in the Crati River Basin (Southern Italy) are made by applying the outputs of three Regional Climate Models (RCMs) RegCM, HIRHAM and COSMO-CLM to the newly developed Intermediate Space Time Resolution Hydrological Model (In-STRHyM). In-STRHyM is a fully distributed hydrological model detailed enough to describe the hydrological processes of several small-medium sized Mediterranean basins. It has a relatively simple structure and is suitable for long period simulations to be undertaken within acceptable time frames. The analysis was performed using two time slices (1961–1990 and 2070–2099) with the SRES A2 (HAD3AM) and A1B (ECHAM5/MPI-OM) scenarios. Observed biases in simulated precipitation and temperature fields during the control period (1961–1990) were corrected before using meteorological outputs from each RCM as input for In-STRHyM. A sensitivity analysis is used to help verify this procedure.While hydrological model simulations are based on different greenhouse gas emission scenarios, GCMs, RCMs and bias correction parameters and hence show noticeable differences, they all agree on a general reduction in future water resource availability. An increase in the average annual temperature between +3.5 °C and +3.9 °C and a decrease between −9% and −21% in the cumulative annual precipitation are projected, leading to a drastic reduction in snow accumulation of between −82% and −92%. Evapotranspiration is expected to increase in the wintertime and decrease in summertime, with the water stress period increasing on average by 15 days. Mean annual reductions are predicted for root zone soil moisture (between −12.8 ± 1.9% and −20.7 ± 1.9%, with reductions reaching −37.7 ± 2.4% during summer), groundwater storage (−6.5 ± 1.4% and −11.6 ± 1.6%), surface runoff (−25.4 ± 6.0% and −41.2 ± 5.0%) and a significant increase in runoff variability.

Research highlights
► The available highest resolution climate change data was used in the analyzed area.
► Results of the RCMs applied to the new distributed hydrological model In-STRHyM.
► Predicted increase in average annual temperature from +3.5 °C to +3.9 °C.
► Predicted decrease from -9% to -21% for cumulated annual precipitation.
► Reduction in soil moisture, groundwater storage and surface runoff (up to -41%).