IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON
WATER RESOURCES OF ZARQA RIVER
BASIN
JORDAN GWADI CASE STUDY
Presented by : Lama Masalha
UNESCO Amman Office
17th July 2010
Beijing, China

The research done by Dr. Ali Naqa , Hashemite
University
AMMAN ZARQA BASIN
Second main tributary
to Jordan river
 Arid and semi arid of
the Mediterranean
climate
 3900 km2
 300 mm annual
rainfall
 There are 56
meteorological and
hydrological stations
with more than 200
observation wells

PROBLEMS FACING THE BASIN
High development activities
 Over abstraction , 100 % from the safe yield
 Deterioration of water quality, wastewater plant,
irrigation practices and industry practices

MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:
Collect , analysis and evaluate the hydrological
and meteorological data
 Model the impact of climate scenarios using
general circulation models ( GCMs)
 Prepare water resources vulnerability mapping
using GIS
 Investigate the impact of climate change on
water resources
 Identify the possible adaptation measures
including integrated water resources
management and action plan

DATA COLLECTION:
Rainfall monitoring network consist 56 stations
of rainfall, evaporation and runoff.
 Most of the rainfall station include class A pan to
measure the evaporation rate, anemometer to
measure the wind speed, sunshine recorder and
relative humidity sensor

HYDROLOGICAL STATIONS
RAINFALL STATION:
HYDROLOGICAL MODELING OF ZARQA
BASIN
WEAP software was used ( Water Evaluation and
Planning system)
 The basin was divided into five sub catchments
using ArcHydrolTool with in the GIS
environment

AMMAN ZARQA BASIN MODEL SETUP
UNDER THE WEAP INTERFACE:
RUNOFF ESTIMATION FOR BASE SCENARIO
The base scenario was implemented to take the
years from 1970 to 2000
 The model use the daily precipitation (mm)
 Daily evaporation ( mm)

PRECIPITATION DATA AS SHOWN FROM
WEAP INTERFACE
EVAPORATION DATA AS SHOWN FROM WEAP
INTERFACE
THE BASE SCENARIO SIMULATION RESULTS
FOR AMMAN ZARQA RIVER BASIN
MONTHLY AVERAGE SIMULATED RUNOFF
MODEL CALIBRATION AND VALIDATION
IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON SURFACE
RUNOFF
HADGEM1: Hadley Center Global Climate
Model, UK.
 CSIROMK3: Commonwealth Scientific and
Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO),
Australia.
 ECHAM5OM: The 5th generation of the ECHAM
general circulation model, Max Planck Institute
for Meteorology, Germany

RESULTS OBTAINED FOR BASE SCENARIOS
AND GCM MODELS
RESULTS OBTAINED FROM WEAP FOR BASE
SCENARIO AND SELECTED GCM SCENARIO
RUNOFF ESTIMATION USING WETSPASS
NEXT STEP:
Prepare water resources vulnerability mapping
taking into account the climate change factors
 Propose water resources adaptation and
mitigation measures to reduce the impact of
climate change
 Propose integrated water resources management
action plan in response to climate change
