Preserving and adapting functions to limited fresh water supply

For agriculture/horticulture and nature, adaptation to decreasing fresh water availability is crucial in the growing seasons. Rainfall becomes concentrated in fewer, but heavier showers, the inlet of good quality water from main water courses will be under pressure, while evapotranspirative demand grows. Particularly for coastal provinces, this causes an increasing influence of brackish/saline ground water that upwells or directly enters the water courses. This influences which plants can be grown, at which infrastructural and other costs, whether agri/horticultural production remains sustainable, how nature develops at „abandoned‟ agricultural areas, and how nature areas and their protection, restoration, and management costs change. A central issue is how agro/ecosystems react to changing salinity.