The fresh water resources of the world are stressed due to the increasing population. Theclimate change has also affected the water resource availability due to the occurrence offrequent and uneven extreme events such as drought and flash floods. In the context ofPeloponnese, Greece water resource management is an important issue for tourism developmentas well as the water supply for the people in the peninsula. To assess the potential climatechange and to quantify the water resource availability linear regression trend analysis andhydrological modeling has been done in this study. The hydro-climatic data (Temperature,precipitation, evapotranspiration and precipitation surplus) show a decreasing trend when a longstudy period (1951-2008) is considered; however, all the trends are not statistically significantexcept precipitation, actual evapotranspiration and precipitation surplus. Similarly, the case isquite opposite when IPCC standard period (1961-1990) is considered. In this period,precipitation and precipitation surplus is increasing but not statistically significant, whereastemperature and potential evapotranspiration has decreasing and statistically significant trendand actual evapotranspiration is decreasing but not statistically significant. Hence, it cannot beconcluded that the climate has changed in the peninsula with reference to linear regressionanalysis. On the other hand, it should be noted that the water resource availability will decreasein the peninsula if the current trend in the hydro-climatic data continues. Furthermore, a spatialanalysis shows that water availability is less in the eastern part and the coastal area of thepeninsula due to low precipitation and high evapotranspiration. Hence, these areas need to befocused on for the better water resource management and planning. However, the uncertaintiesrelated to data and model should be accounted for in the water resource management andplanning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-67988 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Duwal, Sunil |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för naturgeografi och kvartärgeologi (INK) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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