Assessment of Climate Change Impacts of Water Resources in Jordan

Jordan is ranked among the poorest countries in the world in water availability. Resources are already seriously limited and are far below under the water poverty line of (1000) m3 per capita per year. On a per capita basis, available water from existing renewable sources is projected to fall from (150) m3/capita/year in year (2003) to (90) m3/capita/year by the year (2025).Climate change(CC) is expected to increase the water scarcity which will reduce the per capita water share for Jordanians.To study potential impacts of climate change on hydrological system and water resources, two river basins have been selected in the territory of Jordan: the Amman- Zarqa River (3567km2) and the Yarmouk River (1384 km2). To simulate potential changes in runoff the WEAP hydrological model has been applied three selected global circulation models (GCM) (HADGEM1, CSIROMK3 and ECHAM5OM) scenarios. It was found from the simulation for base scenario and GCM scenario that the available amounts of surface runoff resulted from precipitation will be highly affected by climate change. As set of mitigation measures and adaption projects are suggested to reduce the impacts of climate change on water resources