**5. Conclusive remarks**

*Sustainability Assessment at the 21st Century*

tree covered (grove and vineyard) by about 74.5 × 103

**4.2 Vegetation cover changes in the Hula Valley**

dunams. A small quantity of water (14–17 × 106

of Kinneret Headwaters.

48 × 103

123 × 103

permission.

34 mcm; 106

increasing anyhow.

not devastated.

m3

Jordan watershed. Givati [1] approximated an increase of 40 mcm/y consumption

Water legislative consumption inspected by the "Water Authority" was significantly reduced from >100 to 68 mcm/y at present implementation. Confirmed information documented restriction from 200 to 68 mcm/y. Conclusively, climate change, precipitation decline, and restricted legislative allocation essentially make sense. The whole Hula Valley is under plant cover since the late 1950s of which

dunams are presently tree covered (groves). The Golan Heights area is

tree covered area of the Upper Jordan Watershed Upstream during 2017 is about

headwater sources (Hula Valley Western Canal) to irrigate crops on the Dalton Plateau (Western part of the Upper Galilee). Water consumption for irrigation in this part of Israel is fully monitored and absolutely restricted to legislated

Water supply for irrigation on the Golan Heights (part of the upper Jordan watershed) is precipitation-dependent. Thirty-two reservoirs (total capacity

Givati [1] documented the decline of 77 mcm/y of Dan and Banias river (major sources of River Jordan) discharges and an annual decrease of precipitations on the

A reasonable option for invisible water loss in the Hula Valley is the underground preferential pathways gravitating subterranean water migration. Gophen [3, 4] and Gophen et al. [2] suggested 38 mcm/y water loss during drought seasons in the Hula Valley. The Kinneret water balance management was optimized between the dependents of natural parameters (precipitations and river discharge) and human demands (agriculture and domestic). The lake water level resulted in the fluctuations caused by those fluctuating parameters. The national supply (direct pumping from the lake and northern consumption) continued until a severe long-term (5 years) drought led to insufficiency; then a desalinization solution was implemented. Throughout this long-term process, Galilee and the Golan were populated, followed by agricultural flourishing, and the lake was

Calculated drought level using the SPI (standard precipitation index) scale during 1930–2016 [1] indicated 13 and 17 years of severe drought during 1930–1970

The search for well-known cases of water level (WL) decline in lakes is common among limnologists and hydrologists. Deterioration of water quality quite often by water level decline is accompanied by other factors. However, shrinkage measure of the lake is closely related to the Bathymetric features of the lake. In shallow lakes with a flat bottom surface (such as the Aral Sea and Lake Chad), a minor decline of WL exposes a vast bottom area and extreme shrinkage while in deep lakes (steep bottom surface) the opposite occurs: exceptional WL decline exposes a smaller area of the bottom surface. A WL amplitude fluctuation of 20 m (197–217 mbsl) in

off water. Therefore, maximum water reduction from the Kinneret budget is 34 mcm/y. The maximum reduction of water removal from the Kinneret budget attributed to the increase in vegetation cover is worth only to 20 cm of the lake water level. Maximum storage in the Golan reservoirs occurs when regional precipitation is surplus while all other resources are plentiful and Kinneret WL is

Golan Heights of 246 mm during 1970–2010 (Mean 6.2 mm/y).

and 1970–2016, respectively; it also indicates climate change.

) were constructed on the Golan Heights to store natural run-

dunams. Consequently, total

) is also conveyed from

m3

**142**

The impact of climate change in the Upper Jordan Watershed was precipitation and consequently river discharges and available water capacities since the mid-1980s decline [14–16]. Regional air temperature increase was accompanied by the elevation of Lake Kinneret water temperatures. The ET regime during 2005-2018 in the Hula Valley was approximately stable (± 10%). Air temperature increase did not caused significant fluctuations of the ET values due to the high density of vegetation cover which reduced soil surface warming. The changes of the ecological Lake Kinneret trait were mostly due to nutrient dynamics of limitation shift from Phosphorus to Nitrogen.
