Outlook on Climate Change Adaptation in the South Caucasus Mountains

Vorotan. The area is extremely diverse in its climatic conditions. The difference in altitudes is more than 3,600 m – from 374 to 3904 m above sea level. Due to this range of elevation and varying climate, eight successive landscape zones are represented in the area of the basin – from semi-desert to subnival, and almost all the major ecosystems characteristic of Armenia are found in the region. The river network density of the basin is 1.36 km/km 2 , which is significantly greater than in the whole of Armenia – 0.85 km/km 2 . The total number of rivers is 2,985, 97 per cent of which are less than 10 km long, but when combined add up to a length of 5,528 km. Only the Vorotan River has a length of over 100 km. In January 2014 the total water flow of all rivers of the basin was 1.174 billion m 3 . 22 Development of pilot plans for watershed management, including mountain territories, especially with integrated climate change considerations is a step forward in application of legal provisions of integrated water management in practice; however, there are certain shortcomings presented below. The Southern Basin Management Plan does not sufficiently consider possible conflicts between the major water consumers in the energy and agriculture sectors. If the currently developed agricultural strategy to some extent takes into account climate change and proposes some measures for adaptation; hydropower sector development, especially small hydropower plants, does not reflect the projected decline in rainfall and other negative climate change outcomes.

Vorotan river

The approach taken to river basin management takes not only water resources and climate change into account, but also socioeconomic aspects as appropriate; however, ecosystem considerations are absent. The management plan does not consider the conservation of natural ecosystems and the rational use of water resources. Therefore, the process of drafting river basin management plans should involve biologists, ecologists, physicians and epidemiologists to ensure an integrated ecosystem approach that effectively addresses climate change and nature conservation in general. Moreover, getting final approval for new legislation involves a lengthy administrative process that is

both complicated and time-consuming. This process requires a number of coordination events, approvals, revisions and consultations at different bureaucratic levels, which is often prolonged and delayed. Therefore, due to the poorly functioning bureaucracy it is often very hard to achieve desirable changes in the legal framework on any issue, let alone on climate change and water management. Nevertheless, despite the abovementioned obstacles, the initiative is considered as innovative since it is the first time that a river basin management plan is being developed, due to its considerations on the effects from climate change, and because of the readiness of government structures to approve the RBMP.

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