Climate Change Implications for Water Resources in the Limpopo River Basin

This paper analyses the effects of climate change on hydrology and water resources in the Limpopo River Basin of Southern Africa, using a semi-distributed hydrological model and the Water Simulation Module of the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade. The analysis focuses on the effects of climate change on hydrology and irrigation in parts of the four riparian countries in the basin: Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Results show that water resources of the Limpopo River Basin are already stressed under today"s climate conditions.