Climate Change Impacts on Water Balance in Egypt and Opportunities for Adaptations

Climate change has altered the hydrological cycle by increasing temperature, rising sea level, and changing precipitation patterns in many regions of the world. Egypt faces several serious risks from climate change that could reduce water supplies and adversely impact agriculture, economy, human health, and ecosystems. Thus, a dynamic adaptation strategy should be considered and updated periodically according to acquired knowledge to reveal current uncertainties. In this work, recent studies of climate change impacts on Nile water resources, sea level rise, groundwater, precipitation, evaporation, evapotranspiration, and temperature are revisited for providing helpful literature for future studies in Egypt. Furthermore, the proposed adaptation measures for such climate change impacts are discussed to come up with a robust adaptation strategy for Egypt. The results of the various studies concerning the climate change impact on Nile flows indicate considerable contradictory projections about the future availability of Nile water. Thus, studies for proposing and evaluating several adaptation measures for both the optimistic and pessimistic scenarios of the Nile flow still needed as most of the adaptation measures mentioned in the literature are general, descriptive, and not quantified. Studies about the climate change impacts on rainfall, evaporation, evapotranspiration, and groundwater quality and quantity are still limited in Egypt. In addition, research related to improved early warning and prediction, rainfall harvesting techniques, seawater agriculture, salt and tolerant crop varieties, and modern irrigation techniques are essential to cope with future challenges caused by climate change. The review suggests that further investigation is needed to evaluate the possible climate change scenarios of different hydrometeorological processes affecting Egypt’s water resources.