Assessment of Climate Change Impact on Water Resources of Serbia

The main focus of this project is to assess the water resources of Serbia in terms of expected climate change in the future. To define the current "zero" state of water resources (surface and groundwater) in Serbia, official data from hydrometeorological service of Serbia, reduced to a single processing period 1946-2006, will be used. To identify temporal regularity in the structure of hydro-meteorological phenomenon which are considered necessary for the definition of future change, modern methods based on the theory of stochastic processes are going to be used. Special attention will be given to the impact of climate change on the increased frequency and scale of floods and droughts and to the analysis of increasing frequency and duration of rainfall and drought periods. One of the main subjects in this project will also be flood protection, identification of adaptation measures and definition of flood management measures proposed for flood risk management, as well as raising awareness and education in terms of climate change. Also, the impact of climate change on agricultural production, as well as the development of guidelines to improve and achieve better effects in these conditions, will be, theoretically and experimentally, analyzed. Part of the research will be devoted to optimizing the use of water resources, as well as to the development of modern techniques for better utilization of available water resources in agricultural production.