Hrvatske vode, Vol. 33 No. 132, 2025.
Professional paper
The impact of climate change on soil-water balance
Darija Bilandžija
orcid.org/0000-0003-0518-0736
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Agronomski fakultet, Zagreb, Hrvatska
*
Lucija Surić
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Agronomski fakultet, Zagreb, Hrvatska
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Soil water balance is a quantitative measure that defines a deficit or a surplus of water in the soil, with evapotranspiration as its key component. Evapotranspiration represents the amount of water lost through evaporation from soil and free water surfaces, as well as through plant transpiration. It is evident that climate change affects the process of evapotranspiration as well. In this paper, soil water balance was calculated using the Thornthwaite method for 9 locations in the Republic of Croatia that represent agricultural subregions for 2 climatological periods (1961–1990 and 1991–2020). Depending on the agricultural subregion or region analysed, different changes in the soil water balance were observed during the recent climatological period compared to the previous one. Given the identified changes in the soil water regime and the expectation that the impact of climate change will become even more pronounced in the future, it will be necessary to ensure a better management of water resources on agricultural land in the Republic of Croatia.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
350040
URI
Publication date:
6.7.2025.
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