Ecology & Safety, Volume 9, 2015

Abstract: The Water Framework Directive (WFD) should be used as the basic methodological framework to achieve climate change adaptation. Climate change analysis and identification of water stress areas are directly related to ecological flow provision and River Basin Management Plans. Environmental flow for good ecological status (GES) was defined as the hydrological regime necessary to achieve the values specified for the biological quality elements. Low Flow and hydrological drought depends on the change of meteorological conditions and it can be considered as a natural phenomenon but the severity of drought’s impacts depends on the vulnerability of water supply systems and economic and social sectors as well as on the effectiveness of the adopted mitigation measures. E-flows are a management concept. For this end a methodology for joint assessment of drought-risk of water supply under climate change, water stress areas identification and ecological flow provision for WFD is developed. The report presents the methodological approach and system of indexes for assessment of water resources vulnerability and hydrological drought management under different climate and drought scenarios. The methodology has been developed on a transnational level, river basin level and local level – water body, WRMS and reservoir. The results from international project "Mitigating Vulnerability of Water Resources under Climate Change" (CC-WARE) will be presented. The methodology is based on DPSIR approach and identification of drought-vulnerable areas; estimation of water-shortage risk in water resources management systems; definition of long-term and short-time actions to drought management. According to the common methodology, “critical areas/hot points” are determined. A threshold for WEI in CC-WARE varies in function of dominant type of resources and according to the method for estimating the water availability side: long-term average, long term average – eco demand, characteristic low flow, characteristic low flow – eco demand. The experiments are carried out. Diverse climatic, hydrological scenarios, variants of current and future water use, various schemes for utilization of water resources are analyzed. The methodology for assessment and mapping of water stress areas and water supply vulnerability is developed.