Climate change will have a significant impact on water availability and flood and drought risks. It is expected that a warmer climate will lead to a change in spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation and will in particular produce more hydrometeorological extreme events.
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Climate change will develop differently in many areas of the world compared to global climate change. Special attention is set on regions that are climate sensitive and highly vulnerable to climate change, like mountainous regions (e.g. the Alps in Europe) and semi-arid regions (e.g. the Volta River Basin in West Africa). |
Designing adaptation strategies requires a fundamental understanding of regional climate change and its impact on water balance and a quantitative assessment of future conditions. Research in this field are the main objectives of the Climate and Water research area of IMK-IFU. It contributes to the topic 2 "Interactions between bio-, hydro-, and atmosphere" of the Helmholtz Research Programme "Atmosphere and Climate".
The research is carried out in the working group
Climate Change and Terrestrial Hydrology.
General contact: Harald Kunstmann