Water and Climate Change: Which Adaptation Strategy for the Mediterranean

Adapting to climate change in the Mediterranean is a key issue for water management. It has not yet been significantly translated into operational reality, except in a few European Union countries. This is what the 2010 study on adaptation strategies and initiatives implemented in 7 countries (Albania, Egypt, France, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey), which represent the range of situations across the Mediterranean basin, reveals. Against a backdrop of increasing scarcity for some, and faced with the uncertainties associated with climate change, many Mediterranean countries need to revisit their water management methods and risk prevention strategies in order to reduce vulnerability, losses and damages in the short, medium and long term. Adapting to the effects of climate change on water resources requires technical adjustments, but moreover policy, institutional and behavioural changes. Finally, an adaptive water management strategy needs to be flexible and reversible in order to handle uncertainty.