The aesthetics of water and land: A promising concept for managing scarce water resources under climate change

Katja Tielbörger*, Aliza Fleischer, Lucas Menzel, Johannes Metz, Marcelo Sternberg

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

The eastern Mediterranean faces a severe water crisis: water supply decreases due to climate change, while demand increases due to rapid population growth. The GLOWA Jordan River project generates science-based management strategies for maximizing water productivity under global climate change. We use a novel definition of water productivity as the full range of services provided by landscapes per unit blue (surface) and green (in plants and soil) water. Our combined results from climatological, ecological, economic and hydrological studies suggest that, in Israel, certain landscapes provide high returns as ecosystem services for little input of additional blue water. Specifically, cultural services such as recreation may by far exceed that of food production. Interestingly, some highly valued landscapes (e.g. rangeland) appear resistant to climate change, making them an ideal candidate for adaptive land management. Vice versa, expanding irrigated agriculture is unlikely to be sustainable under global climate change. We advocate the inclusion of a large range of ecosystem services into integrated land and water resources management. The focus on cultural services and integration of irrigation demand will lead to entirely different but productive water and land allocation schemes that may be suitable for withstanding the problems caused by climate change.

Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)5323-5337
Number of pages15
JournalPhilosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Volume368
Issue number1931
DOIs
StatePublished - 28 Nov 2010

Keywords

  • Blue-green water approach
  • Ecosystem services
  • Global change
  • Integrated land and water resources management
  • Middle East
  • Water productivity

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