Modelling Climate Change Impacts on the Seasonality of Water Resources in the Upper Ca River Watershed in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The impact of climate change on the seasonality of water resources in the Upper Ca River Watershed in mainland Southeast Asia was assessed using downscaled global climate models coupled with the SWAT model. The results indicated that temperature and evapotranspiration will increase in all months of future years. The area could warm as much as 3.4°C in the 2090s, with an increase of annual evapotranspiration of up to 23% in the same period. We found an increase in the seasonality of precipitation (both an increase in the wet season and a decrease in the dry season). The greatest monthly increase of up to 29% and the greatest monthly decrease of up to 30% are expected in the 2090s. As a result, decreases in dry season discharge and increases in wet season discharge are expected, with a span of ±25% for the highest monthly changes in the 2090s. This is expected to exacerbate the problem of seasonally uneven distribution of water resources: a large volume of water in the wet season and a scarcity of water in the dry season, a pattern that indicates the possibility of more frequent floods in the wet season and droughts in the dry season.

Spatial and Temporal Responses of Soil Erosion to Climate Change Impacts in a Transnational Watershed in Southeast Asia

“…The daily data for precipitation and temperature at the local stations were then employed for the simulation by the SWAT model. More detailed methodology for the generation of future climate change scenarios in this study can be referred to Pham et al [14] 2. 3…”

Assessing Climate Change Impacts on River Flows in the Tonle Sap Lake Basin, Cambodia

“…Moreover, the SWAT model was used to simulate the streamflow in the Indrawati River Basin, Nepal, and to analyse the hydrological response to climate change [17]. Another study of climate change impacts on the seasonality of water resource was conducted in the Ca river basin, a shared boundary river between Laos and Vietnam [18]. The SWAT model was also applied, to investigate the impacts of climate change on flow regimes in the Chao Phraya River Basin, Thailand [19], and integrated with a Statistical DownScaling Model (SDSM) for estimating river flow responses to climate change in the Lake Dianchi watershed, China [20].…”

Rice Intensification in a Changing Environment: Impact on Water Availability in Inland Valley Landscapes in Benin

“…However, for future projections, changes in agricultural land use were simulated using models capable of forecasting land use changes based on human activities and environmental processes [20,21]. The projected climate changes were commonly represented in most studies using climatic scenarios data developed for the target region [15,[22][23][24]. Generally, land use and climate changes impacts were identified using hydrological models as supporting tools which provided valuable frameworks to investigating changes among various hydrologic pathways caused by climate and human activities in agricultural ecosystems [25][26][27].…”