Climate and water budget change of a Mediterranean coastal watershed, Ravenna, Italy

It is generally difficult to quantify exactly the freshwater going in or out of the coastal watersheds along the northern Adriatic Sea because, on one hand, excess water is drained and pumped into the sea to prevent flooding but, on the other hand, water is brought onto the land from far away for irrigation. Fragmentation of water authorities makes it difficult to collect all the necessary information. Climate change and increasing salinization of the coastal aquifers make it imperative, however, to better know the quantities of freshwater involved in these small basins. The water budget of a small coastal agricultural watershed along the Adriatic Sea in Italy (The Quinto Basin near Ravenna) is presented here considering different land uses. The evaporation of open water and the evapotranspiration of wetlands, pine forests, bare soil and irrigated agriculture are calculated based on the Penman–Monteith equation and the Cropwat program. The current water budget is based on average climate data from 1989 to 2008 and drainage and irrigation data. Predictions for future evapotranspiration, net irrigation and hydrologic deficit are calculated with climate data from IPCC (The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) 200, Climate change 2007). From the study results, the soil type may determine whether or not a crop will need more or less irrigation in the future. Regulations on land use should therefore consider which crop type can be grown on a specific soil type. Water budget analysis in scenarios A1b and A2 both show an increase of water deficits in the summer and an increase of water surplus in the winter. This is explained by the fact that a larger percentage of the rain will fall in winter and not during the growth season. The open water evaporation will decrease under future climate scenarios as a result of increased relative humidity in winter and decreased wind velocity. This may have a positive effect on the water cycle. The current irrigation is very abundant, but has beneficial effects in contrasting soil salinization and saltwater intrusion into the coastal aquifer.