Temporal Changes in the Lebanese Litani River: Hydrological Assessment and Recommended Actions to Handle with the Human and Global Change Impacts

Abstract

Litani River is described as the most important river in Lebanon. Even though, high rainfall is often recorded in the Litani River basin, but several physical and anthropogenic changes in this area are affecting the hydrologic regime. This issue has been exacerbated in the last decade. This study provides the majority of the legislation which manage the water sector in Lebanon, especially in the Litani River Basin, and it presents illustrations on climatic and hydrologic trends overall Litani River Basin. It highlights the key issues of water shortage in Litani River including the existing changes and their impacts. It was established a complete figure on rainfall trend from 1994 till 2012 and hydrologic components trends from 1952 till 2011, which are recorded and monitored in three stations located at three parts of Litani River Basin (upper Litani Basin, middle Litani Basin and lower Litani Basin). The average annual rainfall in these three stations is shown to be increasing about to 9% along a period of 18 years. However, there is an obvious decline in the average of the river's discharge which reaches about 45% in the last four decades. This in turn reveals the negative influence of anthropogenic actions on Litani River rather than considering the climatic changes impacts. In addition, the gaps and overlaps in the existing legal framework lead to insufficient control on the major natural water sources, especially the application of the Environmental Protection Framework Law No. 444 dated 29/07/2002. However, we need urgently to start the application of the precautionary principle, principle of prevention, polluted-pays principle and environmental impact assessment in order to prevent and to be adapted to the impacts of climate change at national and international level.