Hydroclimatic Changes Along the Eastern Mediterranean: Case of Lebanon
摘要
Even though, Eastern Mediterranean represents a climatic barrier confronting cold air masses from west, yet it has been affected by global warming and climatic extremes. Thus, the Eastern Mediterranean Region, similarly, to other Middle Eastern regions, is witnessing abrupt changes in its climatic conditions reflected on various hydrological processes and resulted in reduced water volume. Lebanon is a typical example where the climatic conditions have been oscillating over the last few decades. Yet, there is a debate about the type and temporal and geographic dimensions of climate change in Lebanon, and many studies came up with contradictory results and uneven hypothetical concepts. The integration between ground-based data and satellite monitoring data is still unlinked, plus the lack of comprehensive hydroclimatic data over long times series makes it difficult to achieve a common understanding. Results do not show any remarkable change in rainfall volume, but rain has been changed to torrential and temperature has been increased by about 1.8 °C, and snowmelt rate is increased; while the number of days for drought spells and extreme events reported obvious increase. This newly climatic regime, along with uncontrolled human interference, contributed in the decreased water storage in several water resources; and thus, water in rivers and springs has been declined by more than 60%, dryness in many open water bodies (e.g., wetlands, lakes, etc.) has been also reported, plus the abrupt decrease in water table and the discharge in the aquiferous rock formations. The use of satellite-based platforms plays a role in providing hydroclimatic data which is often used to fill gaps and provide data over long time series. This chapter will reveal the trend analysis of climatic data in Lebanon and the implication on the hydrological processes for better evidencing the hydroclimatic changes along the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Satellite-based platforms play a role in providing hydroclimatic data notably in to filling gaps and providing long time series. In addition, climatic scenarios RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 were performed to figure out future climate trends; and thus, results show ascending trend in temperature besides a descending trend in precipitation with remarkable increase in the number of warm days.