Performance of a RBSN under the RCP scenarios: A case study in South Korea

Abstract

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report, the amount of precipitation in South Korea would increase regardless of the reduction of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions. However, at the same time, it is expected that the temporal and spatial rainfall variation would also increase. Due to the impact from typhoons, 90% of the annual precipitation in Korea occurs in July, August, and September. Moreover, the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenario projected that the average precipitation in this period is expected to increase markedly, especially over the next 100 years. These predictions imply an increased variability of available water resources. In this study, we assessed a RBSN (rain barrel sharing network) as an efficient way to respond to the future climate change projections under the RCP scenarios when compared to the historical data. We proposed an evaluation procedure for the reliability, resilience, and vulnerability of RBSN based on a storage-reliability-yield (SRY) relationship. The result shows that the reliability and resiliency of a RBSN will improve but be more vulnerable compared to the results from the historical rainfall data. However, even in the climate change condition, the results showed that a RBSN still contributes to reduce vulnerability. The results of this study imply that a RBSN is an effective and alternative measure that can deal with the impacts of climate change in the future.