Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on the Water Resources of Megech River Catchment, Abbay Basin, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was aimed to assess the impact of climate change on the water resource of Megech river catchment. In this study, large scale regional climate model (REMO) output was downscaled statistically to metrological variables at a daily resolution using SDSM model version 5.11. We noticed that statistical downscaling smooth out the bias between REMO output and observed data. According to the projected climate data, the maximum temperature is likely to have an increasing trend +0.57°C while the minimum temperature shows a decreasing trends ﹣0.61°C. There is no clear trend for precipitation, both increasing and decreasing trend observed in the catchment. The HBV-Light hydrological model was successfully calibrated (1991-1995) and validated (1998-2000) using current climatic inputs and observed river flows. The overall performances of the model was good at monthly time scale both on calibration (NSE = 0.91) and validation (NSE = 0.86). Future discharge (2015-2050) was simulated using statistically downscaled 20 ensembles climate scenario data for both A1B and B1 scenarios. HBV-Light model simulation results showed a reduction of the peak discharge in August and September.