Analysis of climate anomalies for La Villa river basin, Panama, based on RCP scenarios

Abstract

The use of climate change projections is crucial for mitigation and adaptation, which are the basis for creating resilience. However, access to these scientific products is scarce in Latin America and the existing studies lack of an appropriate resolution to analyze small but highly vulnerable regions, such as river basins for planning purposes. La Villa river basin, Republic of Panama, is one of the watersheds of highest priority for adaptation to climate change. This study used downscaled projections from four climate models. The models are based on the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP), presented in the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change-IPCC. Results of this study suggest increases of the annual average precipitation in the watershed for the years 2050 and 2070. Meanwhile, maximum and minimum temperatures will increase an average of 1-2 ° C and near 4 ° C by the end of the 21st century. With these results, we observed that the use of small-scale climate projections in the RCP scenarios is feasible to determine the effects of climate change on small regions.