Impact of Climate and Land Use Changes on Water and Food Security in Jordan: Implications for Transcending “The Tragedy of the Commons”

Jawad Taleb Al-Bakri, Mohammad Salahat, Ayman Suleiman, Marwan Suifan, Mohammad R. Hamdan, Saeb Khresat and Tarek Kandakji
Additional contact information
Jawad Taleb Al-Bakri: Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
Mohammad Salahat: Faculty of Natural Resources & Environment, The Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan
Ayman Suleiman: Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
Marwan Suifan: National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE), Baqa'a, Jordan
Mohammad R. Hamdan: Faculty of Graduate Studies, Dean, Arab American University, Jenin, Palestine
Saeb Khresat: Faculty of Agriculture, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbed, Jordan
Tarek Kandakji: Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Sustainability, 2013, vol. 5, issue 2, 1-25

Abstract: This study investigates the impact of climate change and land use change on water resources and food security in Jordan. The country is dominated by arid climate with limited arable land and water resources, where the per capita share of water is less than 145 m 3 /year. The study focused on crop production and water resources under trends of anticipated climate change and population growth in the country. Remote sensing data were used to determine land use/cover changes and rates of urbanization, which took place at the cost of the cultivable land. Recession of irrigated areas led to lesser food production and food security. Outputs from crop production and water requirements models, in addition to regression analysis, were used to estimate the projected increase in agricultural water demand under the scenarios of increased air temperature and reduced rainfall by the years 2030 and 2050. Results indicated that problems of water scarcity and food insecurity would be exacerbated by climate change and increased population growth. To move from the tragedy of the commons towards transcendence, the study emphasized the need for adaptive measures to reduce the impacts of climate change on water resources and food security. The challenge, however, would remain the development and the efficient use of new water resources as a means for future sustainable development.

Keywords: climate change; land use/cover change; food security; water scarcity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/2/724/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/2/724/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:2:p:724-748:d:23605

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().