280218_Luxor-Egypt SECAP Final_revised

Section IV: Climate Adaptation Plan
1. Executive summary
This section aims at providing Climate Action for internal guidance to the Governorate of Luxor (Municipality)
regarding the vulnerability of climate change, climate risk assessment and climate adaptation. The proposed
structure has been developed based on extensive literature review. This study, which is an integral part of
the sustainable energy and climate action plan (SECAP), is a strategic document as well as an operational tool.
Current trends indicate that climate change (CC) is happening due to increasing greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere in recent years as a result of burning great quantities of fossil fuels and deforestation. In recent
decades, changes in climate have caused impacts on natural and human systems worldwide. Evidence of CC
impacts was observable in different sectors that also have consequences for social and human aspects of the
built environment.
This section describes the SECAP - Climate Adaptation Action (CAA). It comprises three main parts that are
dedicated to analysing the existing situation in Egypt and the Governorate and City of Luxor. It also presents
a study conducted on the Risk Analysis and Vulnerability Assessment in order to define the adaptation actions
already in place or suggested to be implemented by the Governorate of Luxor and the City of Luxor.
2. Current Status Analysis
This chapter focuses on an introduction to climate change impacts particularly in Mediterranean countries.
It also highlights the National and Regional Strategy on Climate Change Adaptation. This is followed by a part
dedicated to climate data feeding in estimations of the climate change impacts in the future, as well the
evolution of the climate conditions in the area (temperature increase, rainfalls etc.). The last part of this
chapter focuses on adaptation scoreboard, including a self-assessment from the Governorate of Luxor
against the standard adaptation scoreboard in the SECAP template.
2.1. Introduction to Climate Change Impact
The Mediterranean region is rich in a large variety of complex climatic phenomena, linked with its
morphology and geographical location. Indeed, the Mediterranean Sea in a transitional band between
subtropical and middle latitude regimes, offering large climate variability at multiple timescales and a strong
seasonal variability of precipitation in many areas (Lionello 2012). The Mediterranean region has been
identified as a prominent “Hot-Spots” in future climate change projections (Giorgi 2006). The water cycle and
its extremes are one of the major concerns, since there are many countries that are over exploiting water
resources, a problem that is expected to deteriorate in the future. Episodes of extreme precipitation are also
taking place and disastrous floods are a major threat for the region, especially the coastal areas. In addition
to the above, cultivation of marginal land, overgrazing and firewood harvesting put more pressure on the
environment, particularly in the Southern Mediterranean Countries, such as (Lionello 2012).
According to Luterbacher, et al. (2006), the Mediterranean region has experienced drastic changes in its
climate over the years. Figure 14 presents the seasonal mean temperature for the period 1961-1990 depicted
in panels A-D, while the total precipitation maps for the same period are depicted in panels E-H.
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