Impacts of Climate Change: A Case in Watersheds in South of Brazil

Abstract

The climate change has been focused of attention of the scientific community, mainly because of the increase of Earth’s average temperature and its consequences as droughts, floods, storms, intense heat, among others. In many areas, climate change is likely to increase water demand while shrinking water supplies. This shifting balance would challenge water managers to simultaneously meet the needs of communities and ecosystems. This paper discusses the impact of the increase of Earth’s average temperature in hydrological series of Passo Fundo River and Várzea River Watersheds, located in the north of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Together, they cover 85 municipalities, 496,427 inhabitants and drain an area of 14,109.7 km2. The aim of this paper is to identify potential impacts of climate change on patterns of maximum monthly precipitation. Conclusions gathered in this paper are useful to know the changes in precipitation, alerting for the need of future operational planning and supporting data to the management of water resources, in order to meet the surrounding communities’ needs.