Modelling the impacts of climate change on surface runoff in small Mediterranean catchments: empirical evidence from Greece

During the last decades, a major factor that analysts and policy makers take into account in the assessment of the environment is climate change. This global physical process is expected to cause problems in natural and human environment. Thus, modelling climate change impacts may lead to prevention policies to minimize the degradation of life quality because of lack of water resources in the future. This study implicates Geographical Information System (GIS) and hydrological modelling tools to various scenarios of climate change such as the increase of temperature the decrease of rainfall, or even both of them, to estimate the potential impact of climate change on surface runoff in a typical catchment in Andros Island, Greece. Primary results indicate a proportional runoff decrease in the next 50 years because of global climate changes.