Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
which is larger than 0.4 (Bates et al. 2008). In a scenario of future scarcity of
water in both regions, reasonable mitigation measures should preferably
be independent of the use of water or alternatively be water-thrifty at least.
The observed decrease in precipitations (snowfall and rainfall) over
the Cuyo region together with the likely 1°C warming and its consequent
increase in evapotranspiration will certainly strain the supply of water to
the irrigated croplands spread along the foothills of the Andes. The absolute
amount of water available for them is expected to decrease, which would
increase the risk of reducing crop yields (RA 2007).
The use of groundwater instead of surface water (from rivers) is not
a solution to water scarcity because groundwater has the same sources as
surface water and it is, therefore, vulnerable to the decrease of precipitation
in the Andean Ridge (Canziani et al. 1995). A modeling exercise of the
northern watershed in the Province of Mendoza showed that a reduction of
10% in the supply of surface water under a scenario of climate change with
a 40-year timeline would lead to the economic unfeasibility of irrigation
because of the increased use of groundwater (Barros and Kullock 2006).
Climate Impacts, Mitigation and Adaptation Issues
In the NOA and Cuyo regions there is a generalized awareness of the
regional consequences of climate change. Presently there are no concrete
programs or policies to cope with plausible impacts of it, but there are
some non-institutionalized actions addressing reasonable mitigation
and adaptation avenues to decrease the vulnerability of those regions.
A conceptual framework for a national adaptation program has been
elaborated using the Adaptation Policy Framework as an imprint (Girardin
and Kozulij 2006). There are studies on vulnerability to climate change
that could be used to frame regional adaptation policies. One of these was
made on glacier dynamics in the Cuyo region (Canziani et al. 1995), where
a decrease in river fl ow is expected to occur in a global warming scenario.
The economic implications of this impact are presumed to be huge in view
of the national and international relevance of the regional wine industry,
which depends on irrigation.
Many of the current adaptation activities pertain to autonomous
adaptation, i.e., the adaptation to the variability of climate that takes place
in the absence of policies and measures from specifi c institutions.
1. Heat-waves
in large cities.
The impact of these phenomena can be
abated through actions on the 'urban heat-island'. These actions are
increasing albedo on urban and built-up surfaces, increasing vegetation
cover, decreasing impervious surface area, decreasing anthropogenic
heating, increasing structural and natural shading, and green roofs to
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