AMELIORATIVE MEASURES AIMED AT PREVENTION/MITIGATION CONSEQUENCES OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN AGRICULTURE IN CROATIA

Keywords: Ameliorative measures, climate change, agriculture INTRODUCTION Potential impacts of global climate changes may include the change in hydrologic processes and watershed response, including timing and magnitude of surface runoff, stream discharge, evapotranspiration, and flood events, all of which would influence other environmental variables (Simonovic & Li, 2004). In Croatia, 2,415 km of embankments were built along larger (state) watercourses, and 1,642 km along local watercourses (Marušić, 2007). Besides embankments in lowland areas can be built unloading channels which purpose is to unload the main watercourse from a part of high water inflow and in this way protect a certain area from flooding. The retention area for the river Sava and it is tributaries is the Natural Park Lonjsko polje, which, owing to it is size and natural characteristics, is the largest protected wetland area not only in Croatia but it he entire Danube region. Besides their role of natural retention in watercourse regulation, wetlands are important because of their ecological value, since they have a positive effect on the water environment. Besides appearance of unusually large amounts of water on certain area, which are caused heavy rain, break of embankments and dams can cause flood, as was in eastern part of Croatia in year 2014 (Figure 1).