Water accounting under climate change in the transboundary Volta River Basin with a spatially calibrated hydrological model
Sustainable water management requires evidence-based information on the current and future states of water resources. This study presents a comprehensive modelling framework that integrates the fully distributed mesoscale Hydrologic Model (mHM) and climate change scenarios with the Water Accounting Plus (WA+) tool to anticipate future water resource challenges and provide mitigation measures in the transboundary Volta River basin (VRB) in West Africa. The mHM model is forced with a large ensemble of climate change projection data from CORDEX-Africa. Outputs from mHM are used as inputs to the WA+ framework to report on water flows and consumption over the historical baseline period 1991–2020 and the near-term future 2021–2050 at the basin scale, and also across spatial domains including four climatic zones, four sub-basins and six riparian countries. The long-term multi-model ensemble mean of the net inflow to the basin is found to be 419 km3 /year with an inter-annual variability of 11% and is projected to slightly increase in the near-term future (2021–2050). However, evaporation consumes most of the net inflow, with only 8% remaining as runoff. About 4 km3 /year of water is currently used for man-made activities. Only 45% of the available water is beneficially consumed, with the agricultural sector representing 34% of the beneficial water consumption. Water availability is projected to increase in the future due to the increase in rainfall, along with higher inter-model and inter-annual variabilities, thereby highlighting the need for adaptation strategies. These findings and the proposed climate-resilient land and water management strategies can help optimize the water-energy-food-ecosystem nexus and support evidence-based decisions and policy-making for sustainable water management in the VRB.
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article biblioteca |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Elsevier
2023-11
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| Subjects: | water accounting, climate change, transboundary waters, river basins, hydrological modelling, water balance, water resources, water management, sustainability, water availability, water use, climate models, evaporation, land cover, land use, runoff, climatic zones, |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/131983 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002216942301034X/pdfft?md5=f4d5176402091d76575e267a91c8113a&pid=1-s2.0-S002216942301034X-main.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2023.130092 |
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