Environmental modeling in small catchments in the context of climate change: Reda case study

The BONUS MIRACLE project focuses on understanding the of the impact of climate change on water environments, including it’s affects on hydrological regimes and nutrient concentrations. The overall objective of MIRACLE is to initiate a social learning process in collaboration with stakeholders, that can identify new configurations for governance (conceptual, institutional, and practice based) in order to reduce nutrient enrichment and flood risk in the Baltic Sea region. These configurations should be understood as new solutions to protect water resources, ecosystem services and provide win-win solutions. To achieve this environmental modelling of the Reda catchment, Poland, is used as a pilot study for the project. Mathematical models which specified the detailed processes associated with water cycles, including determining interconnections and quantifying variables characteristic to the assessment of the water resource quantity and quality, were found to be useful. Due to the complexity of some models, launching, entering the appropriate data in the correct formats and calibrating the models proved to be challenging. Future developments in the water management sector should concentrate on specific local catchment areas where the application of integrated water resource management principles and the adaptation to climate change are more easily merged with local spatial planning. However, a larger number and higher frequency of measurements would be required.