| Title: | Climate change impact on surface water and groundwater recharge in northern Thailand |
| Authors: | Petpongpan, C., C. Ekkawatpanit and D. Kositgittiwong |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Journal: | Water |
| Volume (Issue): | 12(4) |
| Pages: | |
| Article ID: | 1029 |
| DOI: | 10.3390/w12041029 |
| URL (non-DOI journals): | |
| Model: | SWAT-MODFLOW |
| Broad Application Category: | hydrologic only |
| Primary Application Category: | model and/or data interface |
| Secondary Application Category: | climate change |
| Watershed Description: | 58,782.93 km^2 combined Yom and Nan Rivers, which are tributaries of the Chao Phraya River located in northwest Thailand. |
| Calibration Summary: | |
| Validation Summary: | |
| General Comments: | |
| Abstract: | Climate change is progressing and is now one of the most important global challenges for
humanities. Water resources management is one of the key challenges to reduce disaster risk. In
Northern Thailand, flood and drought have always occurred because of the climate change impact
and non-systematic management in the conjunctive use of both sources of water. Therefore, this study
aims to assess the climate change impact on surface water and groundwater of the Yom and Nan
river basins, located in the upper part of Thailand. The surface water and groundwater regimes are
generated by a fully coupled SWAT-MODFLOW model. The future climate scenarios are considered
from the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5, presented by the Coupled Model
Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5), in order to mainly focus on the minimum and maximum
Green House Gas (GHG) emissions scenarios during the near future (2021–2045) periods. The results
show that the average annual air temperature rises by approximately 0.5–0.6 C and 0.9–1.0 C
under the minimum (RCP 2.6) and maximum (RCP 8.5) GHG emission scenarios, respectively. The
annual rainfall, obtained from both scenarios, increased by the same range of 20–200 mm/year, on
average. The summation of surface water (water yield) and groundwater recharge (water percolation)
in the Yom river basin decreased by 443.98 and 316.77 million m3/year under the RCPs 2.6 and
8.5, respectively. While, in the Nan river basin, it is projected to increase by 355 million m3/year
under RCP 2.6 but decrease by 20.79 million m3/year under RCP 8.5. These quantitative changes can
directly impact water availability when evaluating the water demand for consumption, industry,
and agriculture. |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | climate change impact; surface water; groundwater recharge; SWAT-MODFLOW; CMIP5; Thailand |