Scrutinizing the climate change impacts on crop water requirements in Egypt

Abstract EN

Due to the vulnerability of water resources and agriculture sectors to the probable climate change, this research was initiated with the objective of scrutinizing the climate change impacts on crop water requirements.

this was achieved by outlining the behaviour of climate variables during historical periods and examining their expected behaviour in the future.

primarily, literature was reviewed and data was assembled (i.e.

meteorological data of 19 meteorological stations).

these data were analyzed and were used to conduct a statistical analysis.

in addition, the regional climate model rgcm4 was tooled to forecast the meteorological variables in 2050 in order to assess the implications of climate change on crop water requirements.

the analysed results demonstrated that there are increasing in temperature and estimated evapotranspiration, while there is a decrease in rainfall variable at most stations.

the results indicated an increase in temperature ranging between 0 and 2.7 ºc by year 2050.

this would lead to an increase in evapotranspiration rates.

the results also showed an expected slight decrease in rainfall variable.

finally, results showed that the crop water requirements will increase by 10% in 2050 due to change in climate variables.

accordingly, the research recommended the necessity of preparing an adaptation strategy through an action plan that enables the ministry of irrigation and water resources to face the negative impacts of the expected climate change.