Less snow, more rain and floods await Turkey: NASA expert
ISTANBUL
Turkey will face less snow and more rainfall from now on due to global warming, with more incidents of floods occurring in the country, according to a snow hydrologist working at NASA.
“You will have more floods and there should be more investments in infrastructure to combat this. Some places, on the other hand, will experience droughts. So dams should be built for clean water,” Dr. Thomas Painter told daily Habertürk on Jan. 19.
“The problem we go through in global warming is this: The hotter the climate is, the more water in the form of rain falls instead of snow. Due to this, an important reserve of water is lost because as soon as rain pours down it flows immediately [to the earth]. It does not stay like snow in the high areas of mountains,” Painter said.
“As one of the water storage systems, meaning snow, is lost, the capacity of dams in terms of collecting water is exceeded, which results in more incidents of floods,” he added.
The NASA hydrologist also noted the potential impact of this climate change on cities, saying “more investment in necessary infrastructure” is needed.
“You also need to build more dams to have clean water, because floods pollute water. But while some regions will experience more floods, others will experience more droughts. One of the things this means is, for example, more forest fires,” Painter said.
