Ammar Abbas(1)*, Boshra Khozam(1) and Jamil Abbas (2)
(1). Department of natural, General commission for scientific agriculture research –resource, Damascus, Syria.
(2). Department of Soil and Water science, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, Lattakia, Syria.
(*Corresponding author: Ammar Abbas, E.mail: ammarabbas1984@hotmail.com)
Received: 15/01/2021 Accepted: 18/02/2022
Abstract:
The research was conducted in the Orontes lower basin in the area between the Rastan dam and Syrian-Turkish border near Jisr Al-Shughour city with a total area of 8115 km2 to assess the current use of water resources in agriculture sector and propose future scenarios for managing these resources. 2010 was considered as a base year , then data from Ministry of Water Resources (river flow, tributaries, natural recharge of ground water, spring flow, storage of dams ..) daily meteorological data (precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and solar radiation) from the General commission for Meteorology, data from Ministry of Agriculture (land use , total agricultural tolerances, irrigated areas, crop water requirements, irrigation techniques..) and GIS databases (topographic, geological, hydrographic, soil, climate and land use) were obtained . The main data of WEAP21 were prepared (demand and supply sites, available water resources ..) and the catchment icon was selected for basin modeling using MABIA as integrated model with the WEAP21 take into consideration a range of inputs including: land use, Irrigation techniques, climatic data, soil texture, soil moisture characteristics, irrigation techniques and irrigation efficiency. The model was first calibrated and validated depending on actual production and production of the model, then unmet demand in the base year was considered to suggest future scenarios in the period (2011-2050), including Reducing areas planted with summer crops and expanding areas planted with winter crops, irrigation efficiency scenario, deficit irrigation scenario, water harvesting scenario, and treatment plant scenario. The unmet demand was 638.2 million m3 in 2010, it decreased to 526 million m3 by the year 2050 with expand of winter crops. The unmet demand is dropped gradually with an application of previous scenarios to reach 249.4 million m3 with the application of treatment plants scenario with a water use efficiency of 0.74 kg / m3.
Keywords: Orontes basin, water resources, water deficit, scenario, WEAP, MABIA.
Full paper in Arabic: pdf