Irrigation Water Management in the Jordan Valley under Climate Change Conditions

This paper investigates the deficit in the irrigation demand in the Jordan Valley for several scenarios of water scarcity and looks into possible adaptation options. For this purpose, the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) system is implemented to the Jordan Valley basin. Three scenarios were analyzed by the developed WEAP model which are the Business As Usual (BAU) scenario, the climate change scenario, and the Red Dead Canal scenario. The results showed that for the BAU scenario, the deficit in the irrigation demand will grow until the end of the planning period despite the measures implemented which are: improving irrigation efficiency, reducing non revenue water and implementing the Disi project. Under the climate change scenario, the deficit in the Irrigation demand is projected to be the most severe due to demand increase and resources reduction. The results showed that by implementing the Red Dead Canal project, the deficit in the irrigation demand in the Jordan Valley for the year 2050 will drop from about 177 MCM for the climate change scenario to zero for the Red Dead Canal scenario.