Proposing an implementation of a climate change adaptation strategy at river basin scale. Application to the Jucar river basin.

According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warming of the climate system is unequivocal and in recent decades, changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems on all continents and across the oceans. Surface temperature is projected to rise, and rainfall patterns to change. Freshwater resources could be compromised due to climate change, especially in the Mediterranean region. Moreover, extreme events as droughts or floods are expected to occur more frequently.

For all these reasons, we propose the evaluation and implementation of a climate change adaptation river basin plan with the aim of reducing risks and improve resilience. Indeed, one of the goal 13 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals is strengthening resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. The EU Strategy on adaptation to climate change encourage all members to implement adaptation strategies. For instance, climate change adaptation river basin plans are a reality in France, where basin adaptation plans have been published since 2014.

Evaluating risks and propose measures in order to reduce water vulnerability is needed in Jucar river basin (Eastern Spain) where water system is currently stressed. Jucar climate change adaptation basin plan should evaluate the specific qualities the basin has and the risks and vulnerabilities in order to strength water management. For this evaluation, we propose to assess the impact of the spatial distribution of precipitation and temperature within the case study for identifying the most vulnerability areas. Furthermore, the sea level rise will cause affection in groundwater aquifers that should be included on the proposed analysis.