Quantifying the impact of climate change on water resources Quantifying the impact of climate change on water resources at the basin scale on five continents – a unified approach Quantifying the impact of climate change on water resources

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the methods and results of an assessment of climate change impacts on catchment scale water resources, conducted under the QUEST-GSI (Global Scale Impacts) programme. The project method involved running simulations of catchment-scale hydrology using a unified set of past and future climate 5 scenarios, to enable a consistent analysis of the climate impacts around the globe. The results from individual basins are presented in other papers in 2010. Overall, the stud-ies indicate that in most basins the models project substantial changes to river flow, beyond that observed in the historical record, but that in many cases there is consider-able uncertainty in the magnitude and sign of the projected changes. The implications 10 of this for adaptation activities are discussed.