Climatic conditions and availability of water resources in Greece

Greece is characterized by a special geomorphologic structure, the result of which is a variety of climatic conditions and the division of the area into a plethora of basins and a number of water districts. This study aims to analyze the climatic conditions, as well as of the availability of water resources across the country. The air temperature and rainfall data of the time period 1965-95 were acquired from 40 meteorological stations and processed on a monthly and annual basis. The spatial distribution of the aforementioned climatic variables, as well as of the climatic indices of Johansson Continentality and De Martonne Aridity was derived. The results show that the Pindos mountain range is a major contributing factor in the climatic variety, dividing the country into windward, high precipitation western areas and leeward, low precipitation eastern areas. This precipitation pattern affects directly the availability of water resources, which was briefly analyzed in each water district.