Czech Republic

New regional scenarios of climate change, which refine the results submitted in the previous national communication, were created in recent years for estimating the impacts of climate change in the Czech Republic. All the experiments indicate elevated temperatures, increased precipitation in the winter and spring, while summer precipitation will typically decrease by up to 30%. It is highly probable that the yield of water sources in the Czech Republic will decrease, which would substantially worsen the currently relatively unfavourable hydrological conditions in some river basins.

A greater frequency of floods in the winter can be expected as a consequence of increased outflow in the colder season of the year. Warming of the water will lead to a reduction in the number of species, to acceleration of the processes of decomposition of organic substances. Studies have indicated that the susceptibility to impacts is increased particularly by increased variability in the weather and by the occurrence of extreme weather conditions (high temperatures and their duration, periods without precipitation and, on the other hand, more frequent occurrence of intense precipitation).

The beginning of the vegetation period in southern areas will shift to the beginning of March and the end of this period will move to the end of October or the beginning of November.

Adaptation measures for the Czech Republic have been proposed by the T.G. Masaryk Water Research Institute and are the result of analyses and comparison of changes in water management and the capacities of water sources with the current conception of developmental policy, with the state water management structure and with the state of the environment in the Czech Republic.

Source: Czech Republic's Fourth national communication, 3 February 2006. Report demonstrating progress under the Kyoto Protocol - Progress Report 3 February 2006.