Climate Change Challenges to Groundwater Resources: Palestine as a Case Study

Abstract

In the Mediterranean region, climate change will result by 2100 in a temperature increase that most likely will range from 2°C to 2.7°C, while annual precipitation will most likely reduce in the range of 3% to 10%. This paper uses hydrological modeling of precipitation and evapotranspiration to evaluate the challenge to aquifer natural recharge considering Palestine as a case study. The study showed that the climate change impacts on aquifer recharge will vary according to the distributions of monthly precipitation and evapotranspiration in the recharge areas. The 2°C to 3°C increase in temperature could result in a reduction of 6% to 13% in aquifer annual recharge. Aquifer recharge was found to be sensitive to changes in precipitation as a reduction of 3% to 10% in annual precipitation could result in a reduction in annual recharge ranging from 3% to 25%. It was observed that aquifers with recharge areas characterized by lower precipitation are more sensitive to precipitation reduction and thus groundwater resources will be negatively impacted more in these areas by climate change. Thus, climate change will reduce water availability in drier areas requiring adaptation measures through improving water management and rehabilitation of water infrastructure.