Highlights and concluions Summary of the case studies The following section summarizes all the information provided in the case studies with regard to land use and land management and to adaptation measures, which are the main strategies to confront climate change. Land use and land management change The relevance of land use change in the performance of groundwater and dependent ecosystems is not similar in all the case studies. In fact, it ranges from important (see 8.3 section), to nearly insignificant (see 7.3 and A1.3 sections), depending on the role played by land use and management. In several case studies the relevance of changes in land management within current land uses has been found to be higher than the one caused by land use changes (see 6.3, 8.3, 9.3 and 10.3 sections). It can be concluded that, even regarding the fact that each case study shows unique features, all of them point out that the potential effects caused by climate change in current land uses, due to changes in water requirements and/or changes in land use management strategies, have potentially higher relevance than land use changes. This is caused by the fact that agricultural and/or forested areas dominate the case studies’ landscape, with no future threats expected to that dominance (see 6.3, 8.3, 9.3 and 10.3 sections), and therefore, changes in water requirements due to climate change (see 6.3, 8.3 and 9.3 sections) are likely to overcome the impacts caused by land use changes. A summary of each case study land use and management scenarios features is showed in Table 14.1. 14.1: Potential land Current Main drivers Expected Expected land use and Case study main land of land use land use management management uses change changes changes changes impact Increase in Photovoltaic industrial Greece Agriculture Medium park replacing area, None agriculture decrease in agriculture Changes in Changes in maize Austria Agriculture High maize crop Insignificant crops irrigation cycle practices Norway Agriculture Low None None None Grassland Increase in grassland, decrease in replacing Agriculture, forest (caused by the necessity to forest, changes Netherlands grassland and High balance the increasing forest water in grassland forest requirements with the and forest grassland) cycle
Highlights and concluions Summary of the case studies The following section summarizes all the information provided in the case studies with regard to land use and land management and to adaptation measures, which are the main strategies to confront climate change. Land use and land management change The relevance of land use change in the performance of groundwater and dependent ecosystems is not similar in all the case studies. In fact, it ranges from important (see 8.3 section), to nearly insignificant (see 7.3 and A1.3 sections), depending on the role played by land use and management. In several case studies the relevance of changes in land management within current land uses has been found to be higher than the one caused by land use changes (see 6.3, 8.3, 9.3 and 10.3 sections). It can be concluded that, even regarding the fact that each case study shows unique features, all of them point out that the potential effects caused by climate change in current land uses, due to changes in water requirements and/or changes in land use management strategies, have potentially higher relevance than land use changes. This is caused by the fact that agricultural and/or forested areas dominate the case studies’ landscape, with no future threats expected to that dominance (see 6.3, 8.3, 9.3 and 10.3 sections), and therefore, changes in water requirements due to climate change (see 6.3, 8.3 and 9.3 sections) are likely to overcome the impacts caused by land use changes. A summary of each case study land use and management scenarios features is showed in Table 14.1. 14.1: Case study Current main land uses Potential land use and management changes impact Main drivers of land use change Expected land use changes Expected land management changes Greece Agriculture Medium Photovoltaic park replacing agriculture Increase in industrial area, decrease in agriculture None Austria Agriculture High Changes in maize crop cycle Insignificant Changes in maize crops irrigation practices Norway Agriculture Low None None None Netherlands Agriculture, grassland and forest High Grassland replacing forest, changes in grassland and forest cycle Increase in grassland, decrease in forest (caused by the necessity to balance the increasing forest water requirements with the grassland)
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