CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON WATER BALANCE COMPONENTS IN BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA AND CROATIA.

The climate of Southeastern Europe, where Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and Croatia are located, is changing in line with the global trends. The spatial and seasonal distribution of precipitation is changing, while the temperatures increased 0.4-0.8 oC on average compared to 1961-1990, most notably during summer (1.0-1.2 oC). Depending on the different Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios, the temperatures in this area are projected to further increase by 1.7-4.0 °C. In order to understand the effects of climate change on regional water resources, it is important to assess the impacts of these changes on the components of the water balance. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the severity of changes in annual water balance between two climate periods (1961-1990 and 1991-2020). The results indicate that climate change has a different temporal and spatial effect. All areas showed a positive trend in mean air temperature (0.29-0.36 oC per decade), reference evapotranspiration (5.96-32.14 mm per decade) while precipitation, total runoff, amount of snow and actual evapotranspiration vary depending on the location and time period. The key characteristic of the 1991-2020 period compared to 1961-1990 is the greater variation of all components of the water balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]