Resilient agriculture: water management for climate change adaptation in Lower Saxony

Abstract

Climate change has increased the intensity, frequency and duration of heatwaves and droughts in Europe turning water management into an even more complicated issue. Because water is a fundamental resource for agriculture, water management has to be addressed with climate change adaptation. While stakeholders in Lower Saxony are aware of adaptation measures they could implement to dampen the effects of climate change, evidence of the effectiveness of adaptation measures at a local scale is still missing. An analysis of adaptation measures using a new hydrological model was performed to test four adaptation measures suggested by stakeholders. Changing crops has the strongest effect followed by improving irrigation efficiency, humification and, finally, artificial aquifer recharge. If crops are changed, irrigation water demand and energy consumption could be reduced by up to 20.7%, costs could be reduced in 19.1%, the aquifer level could rise up to 284.85 mm and emissions could be reduced by 26.6% by the end of the century. Artificial recharge proved to be an inadequate method for the region as it does not impact the irrigation water demand, and an insufficient amount of water is available to have a substantial effect on the aquifer.