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Droughts and Agriculture in Lebanon: Causes, Consequences, and Risk Management
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... A notable example of this variability is demonstrated by extreme climatic events, such as the 2011 flash floods in North Bekaa and East Lebanon, and the 2015 flooding in the Nahr El Kabir area of Akkar. These events highlight the country's vulnerability to both drought and flood threats, demonstrating that even normal rainfall levels can lead to significant flood damage [14]. This pattern of extreme weather persisted in 2018, when Tripoli experienced heavy rain, snow, and flooding, with 81 mm of rainfall recorded in just 24 h in February [14]. ...
... These events highlight the country's vulnerability to both drought and flood threats, demonstrating that even normal rainfall levels can lead to significant flood damage [14]. This pattern of extreme weather persisted in 2018, when Tripoli experienced heavy rain, snow, and flooding, with 81 mm of rainfall recorded in just 24 h in February [14]. The Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute [15] reported a 40 % to 50 % reduction in rainfall during 2016 in comparison with an average year. ...
... The agriculture sub-topic includes mainly irrigation studies (FAO, 2020a(FAO, , 2008IRWA, 2002;Karam et al., 2009;Karam and Nangia, 2016;UNDP/CDR, 2009;World Bank, 1994) but also general sector reviews (Dal et al., 2021;Sanlaville, 1963), agricultural sector national strategies (MoA, 2020(MoA, , 2010, studies of agricultural potential (Kubursi, 2005), and farmer satisfaction surveys (USAID, 2014b). The hazards sub-topic includes a variety of studies of natural and anthropogenic hazards, such as floods (Abdallah et al., 2013;Abd-El-Al, 1940;Khawlie, 1994;USAID, 2010a), climate change impacts (Khawlie, 2001;MOE/UNDP/GEF, 2022Nasreddine, 2001;Osman Elasha, 2010;Plan Bleu, 2008;UNDP, 2021), droughts (Verner et al., 2018;Ziade, 2009), desertification (MoA, 2003, and groundwater vulnerability (Metni et al., 2004;MORES, 2010;Saadeh, 2020). The renewable energy sub-topic includes studies of river hydropower (Houri, 2006;McCrory, 1948;Sanlaville, 1965), hydropower potential of non-river sources (UNDP/CEDRO, 2013a, 2013b), solar-powered pumping (Hajj Shehadeh, 2015) and geothermal resources (UNDP/CEDRO, 2014). ...
... In 1994, it loaned the CDR funds to reconstruct water infrastructure destroyed during the war (World Bank, 1994). The World Bank went beyond providing loans, by producing reports on Lebanon's water sector, including a policy note on sustainability of the irrigation sector (World Bank, 2003), a public expenditure review (World Bank, 2010), social impact analysis (World Bank, 2009), environmental and social impact assessment of the Beirut water-supply project (World Bank, 2014), assessment of Lebanon's water-sector strategy (World Bank, 2012), and the book Droughts and Agriculture in Lebanon (Verner et al., 2018). ...
This work reviewed a large and fragmented body of academic and grey literature on water resources in Lebanon. The objective was to assess and curate the existing knowledge base that reflected the importance of water-related concerns. Studies were classified into four topics: water balance, quality, management and governance, each of which was subdivided into sub-topics. Bibliometric analysis was performed, the content was summarised and discussed, and future directions were proposed. In terms of water balance, precipitation requires more research, as available rainfall maps are outdated. Despite an increase in the number of weather stations, their spatial distribution and data continuity remain problematic. Snow cover area and duration differed among studies; thus, it also requires more research. Estimates of evapotranspiration lack comprehensive coverage and often focus on specific crops. Surface-water studies are rare and have low temporal resolution. River flows have high temporal and spatial variability, emphasizing the importance of groundwater, which is overexploited. No consistent trends in climate change impacts were detected. More research is needed in all of the hydrological cycle components. On the other hand, water quality is degrading rapidly with microbiological pollution in most rivers. Groundwater degradation, saltwater intrusion, nitrate pollution, and pesticide contamination pose significant challenges. In addition, emerging pollutants are also being detected. In terms of water management and governance, Lebanon's water framework is complex, involving many laws, institutions, and international partnerships. Despite reforms, challenges remain. Water management has evolved from being state-centred to having increased involvement by international organisations and the private sector. Access to public water networks has improved but remains intermittent. Wastewater networks are expanding, but treatment capacity remains limited. Finally, this work made it possible to quantify the research work and projects carried out in each Lebanese basin, which made it possible to identify gaps in study topics and areas. We hope that this work contributes to the ongoing debate about water security and serves as a resource to support water security and solutions for researchers, educators and policy makers.
... Water stress is increasing in the capital and most populated city of Lebanon, Beirut, due to many factors, such as population growth, contamination of water supply, and urbanization. Furthermore, climate change and natural hazards are already affecting the region accompanied by a severe financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic (Verner et al., 2018;Bizri et al., 2021). Water security has been linked with other securities within a nexus approach including energy, food, and health that have been recognized as challenges in Lebanon (Fardoun et al., 2012;Institute for Water Environment and Health, 2017;Hameed et al., 2019). ...
... org, 2019), but within the growing effect of climate change, the rainy days are getting less, and rain events are more intense which leads to floods and high runoff (Ramadan, 2012). Furthermore, drought is also a threat to the water security in Lebanon affecting the rain-fed agriculture, groundwater recharge, and drying of seasonal springs (Verner et al., 2018). ...
Urban water security is a major concern in many cities especially in the Mediterranean region- the most water-scarce region in the world. Cities in this region face dynamic water challenges due to rapid urbanization, limited water resources, climate change and increasing water demand, coupled with poor water management. Several studies have assessed urban water security in divergent ways with silo angles like water availability which cannot support a whole-of-system view, and transformational change at multiple scales. Such a holistic framework of urban water security is rare in practice in many water-scarce cities. This study conducts a nexus assessment of urban water security in Beirut, Lebanon considering four dimensions, which are: “Drinking water and human wellbeing”, “Ecosystem”, “Climate change and water-related hazards”, and “Socioeconomic aspects” (DECS). The DECS dimensions include several indicators for assessment and were tailored to fit Beirut’s context by interviewing local experts to define the weights to be assigned to each indicator, through the analytic hierarchy process. The drinking water and human wellbeing dimension was the most significant according to local experts, receiving a weight of 60.17%, followed by the socioeconomic aspects (19.6%), climate change and water-related hazards (12.25%), and ecosystem (7.98%) dimensions. The Integrated Urban Water Security Index (IUWSI) showed that the urban water security in Beirut is fair with a score of 2.48/5, indicating many loopholes that need to be covered in most of the dimensions. Weaknesses are clear in the ecosystem, climate change and water-related hazards, and socioeconomic dimensions with scores of 1.72/5, 2.12/5, and 2.26/5 respectively. Additionally, specific shortcomings are found in indicators such as water availability, reliability, diversity, and public health. The results support water stakeholders to prioritize interventions based on the shortcomings demonstrated by the present study.
... Lebanon, located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, is no exception to the countries impacted by the disruption of the climate system. Its agricultural sector is characterized by rain-fed but above all irrigated crops, and generally the majority of crops require additional water supplies especially during the hot season (Verner et al., 2018). On the other hand, due to climatic hazards, water availability has decreased and the farmer in rural areas faces the challenge of water scarcity. ...
... This analysis will allow us to characterize the agricultural production of each agro-climatic zone, to identify the diversification of these zones and to identify the homogeneous production systems present in the different zones. The grouping of farms according to the climate criterion is important in a semi-arid zone where the main factor that impacts the performance of farmers is the amount of rain on its territory (Verner et al., 2018). ...
Baalbeck El Hermel Governorate, particularly the semi-arid region is increasingly threatened by climate change. These disturbances, more specifically, concerning the limit in water resources generate problems for the agricultural systems constituting the principle source of families’ subsistence in this zone. This study was established to evaluate, via a bioeconomic modeling approach, the resilience of agricultural systems in Baalbeck El Hermel and perceive their adaptation techniques under conditions of water scarcity. In this context, we have selected three typical farms representative of the driest northern zone receiving the least precipitation. Several behaviors and levels of resilience of these farms were showed after analysis of the results: 1) farms specializing in market gardening or perennial crops are very sensitive to drought conditions and are not resilient in the face of water limit conditions; 2) the diversified farm with olive tree dominance is less sensitive and more resilient. The analysis of the water pricing scenario showed an improvement in water management but a limit in the adaptive capacity of farmers, hence the necessity to adapt resilience-building strategies for the targeted zone.
... Despite its importance, a number of production constraints are hindering the full export potential of potato production in Lebanon such as, climate change, the use of low yielding varieties and the occurrence of bacterial diseases and viral infections (Choueiri et al., 2017). Furthermore, potatoes during the summer are vulnerable to drought and salinity stresses due to insufficient irrigation water and temperature extremes (Verner et al., 2018). Therefore, the need for identification of heat, drought and salinity tolerant potato genotypes for breeding by early selection is immense. ...
Abiotic stresses, including heat, drought, and salinity, pose severe threats to agricultural yields, globally affecting essential crops like potatoes. The aim of this study is to establish an in vitro culture system for three potato accessions: Tal Amara 1 (TA1), Tal Amara 2 (TA2), and Tal Amara 3 (TA3) and to quantify their tolerance to temperature, drought, salinity, and combined stresses. The results demonstrated that MS0 (devoid of growth regulators) medium was the best for culture initiation, with a percentage of reactive meristems of 82.22%, whereas MS1 (0.35 mg L-1 Kin + 0.2 mg L-1 IAA + 0.1 mg L-1 GA3) medium resulted in the highest multiplication rate of 5.5. The most heat tolerant accession was TA1, with shootlets lengths ranging from 2 cm to 4.4 cm at temperatures of 4°C and 38°C respectively. Concerning the effect of combined drought and temperature stresses, TA1 and TA3 showed tolerance to the different mannitol concentrations. Likewise, the most prominent accession in terms of combined salinity and temperature tolerance was TA2, with shootlets lengths of 3.2 cm (60 Mm NaCl, 22°C), 2.03 cm (60 Mm NaCl, 4°C) and 1.6 cm (60 Mm NaCl, 38°C).
... These years were actually classified as the driest hydro-meteorological in the recent history of the country. As of 1999 and 2014, Lebanon was facing a summer drought after a record drought in 1998 and 2013 winters (Ghaleb et al., 2015;Kobrossi et al., 2021;Verner et al., 2018). ...
... The area is semi-urbanized, cultivated mainly with rainfed and irrigated wheat, fruit trees, tobacco, and vegetables (Verner et al. 2018). Terraced land (Terric Anthrosols) is mainly used for fruit trees and distributed among hilly to mountainous landscapes dominated by limestone (Darwish et al. 2005). ...
In response to Lebanon’s 2019 economic crisis, agricultural
activities intensified to enhance national food security, with
implications for soil health. We investigated soil management
practices on 26 small-scale farms in a mountainous region,
focusing on reconciling static sustainability definitions with
dynamic resilience concepts. Surveying farmers revealed varied
adoption rates of regenerative practices: intercropping (85%),
residue retention (73%), cover crops (61%), organic amendments
(46%), integrated organic/mineral amendments (46%),
improved irrigation (38%), conservation tillage (30%), crop rotation (19%), and organic/biological pest/disease treatment (11%). Farms were categorized as conventional (C), neutral (N), and regenerative (R) based on practices. Qualitative assessments
using seven indicators yielded scores of 4.28 (C), 6.34 (N), and
7.88 (R). Quantitative analyses showed significant differences in
soil organic matter percentage (1.86 C, 2.75 N, 3.32 R), soil
respiration (156 C, 296 N, 380 R), and earthworm abundance
(2.92 C, 4.24 N, 5.72 R). The Soil Quality Index (SQI) indicated
varying soil health from 0.05 (C) to 0.49 (R). Our findings highlight
the importance of adopting synergistic, sustainable soil
management practices to ensure enduring agricultural productivity and safeguard soil resilience, especially in the
Mediterranean region.
... In this respect, it is argued that productivity differentials can be reduced by providing inputs and knowledge able to enhance human capital (Dercon et al., 2009). Overall, empirical evidence suggests that agricultural extension and advisory services positively contribute to productivity and technical efficiency, income level and poverty reduction (Rahman & Connor, 2022) in the face of the effects of climate change (Verner et al., 2018). ...
This paper provides new evidence about the impact of an agricultural development initiative focused on the cherry sector and implemented in rural areas of the Bekaa Valley (Lebanon). The initiative aims to enhance economic opportunities of smallholder farmers by strengthening technical skills, fostering sustainable productions and developing market linkages. Using original micro data from a sample of 118 smallholder cherry farmers, we explore, through a Difference-in-Differences approach, whether the development initiative, based on the provision of extension services and accompaniment through technical training, impacts on a broad set of alternative agricultural outcomes—namely, total cherry production, average market price, management competency and the adoption of improved agricultural practices. The results show that beneficiary small-scale farmers achieve better performances in three outcomes out of the four considered, with the adoption of improved and sustainable agricultural practices as the most remarkable result. Conversely, the management of the agricultural economic activity does not experience any statistically significant variation connected to the initiative implementation. The analysis of a limited source of treatment heterogeneity discloses the primary role of technical training, rather than other kinds of material support, to explain the main results.
... This analysis will allow us to characterize the agricultural production of each agro-climatic zone, to identify the diversification of these zones and to identify the homogeneous production systems present in the different zones. The grouping of farms according to the climate criterion is important in a semi-arid zone where the main factor that impacts the performance of farmers is the amount of rain on its territory (Verner et al., 2018). ...
The Mediterranean region is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change (CC) which raises important problems for Mediterranean agriculture. In fact, climate disruption creates some uncertainty in the decision-making of farmers in the management of their farms. This understanding can help researchers to better orient agricultural research on adaptation at the farm level and can help policy makers to develop adaptation policies. The semi-arid region of Baalbeck El Hermel is increasingly threatened by climate change. The agricultural systems constituting the main source of household subsistence in this zone show a significant vulnerability to these disturbances, especially about the limit in water resources. In this research we propose a framework to represent agricultural activities using typologies of farms and production units aggregated at a regional scale. We used empirical data from a local case study of the five most representative farming systems in the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. Analysis of the results showed several behaviors and several levels of resilience of these farms:1-farms specializing in market gardening or perennial crops are very sensitive to drought conditions and are not resilient in the face of water limit conditions;2-the diversified farm with olive tree dominance is less sensitive and more resilient.
Research work was undertaken at Agro Climate Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural
University Coimbatore, with the objective of developing agromet advisories for rice crop for 54 independent
selected weather windows (SW W ) covering eight rice growing seasons/systems of Tamil Nadu. This
was done to provide weather-based agromet advisory to the farming community. Weather sensitive rice
agromet advisories were developed for its nine stages through group discussions based on rice crop
sensitiveness to SW W. The available literature on interaction between rice crop and weather elements at
their different threshold levels was also properly considered during this exercise. Proto-type were run for
one block of Tamil Nadu and thus problems identified for seeking solutions.
RESUME -Les auteurs proposent une interprétation phytosociologique pour certains groupements forestiers du Liban, et notamment pour ceux à Quercus calliprinos, Cedrus libarti et Abies cilicica ; plusieurs associations sont décrites. La valeur des formations à Pinus brutia, Pinus pine a et Pinus halepensis au Liban est également discutée.
A possible relationship between the phase of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO) and the effect of the Southern Oscillation (SO) on the January-February climate in the Northern Hemisphere is examined. Findings suggest a preference for the tropical/Northern Hemisphere (TNH) circulation pattern in response to anomalies in the SO in east QBO phase years, and for the Pacific/North American (PNA) pattern in west QBO phase years. This extends previous findings relating the strength of the TNH pattern to tropical Pacific sea surface temperature during ENSO episodes. This differentiation has fairly clear-cut implications for the January-February United States surface temperature anomaly pattern when a low (high) SO episode is in progress. The TNH emphasizes warmth (cold) in the Great Lakes/western Midwest; whereas the PNA induces a generally higher amplitude pattern, emphasizing cold (warmth) in the Southeast and warmth (cold) in the western third of the country. The SO-climate relationships appear approximately linear for each of the two QBO phases. A hypothetical physical mechanism through which this process might operate is briefly mentioned.