Global climate change is expected to have major impacts on water resources and aquatic ecosystems. This prospect presents planners, who are already struggling to meet the demands of growing populations and economies, with new challenges. This volume examines these challenges and the resulting conceptual issues for water planning and project evaluation practices. The book is the first attempt to consider whether and how water resources, planning principles and evaluation criteria should be altered in view of the potential impacts of anthropogenically induced climate change. The principles and procedures that are in use today along with new approaches to nonstructural flood plain management, watershed management, water markets, and wetland banking will serve as the basis for the policies and strategies that deal with climate variability and anticipated change. This collection of papers reviews what water management ideas work, which ones need to be changed, and how planners and managers should begin incorporating aspects of risk and uncertainty into management decisions to deal expertly with climate change.

This report provides a broad overview of the interaction between climate variations and water resources engineering.

This book discusses different aspects of water resources, ranging from hydrology and modeling to management and policy responses. Climate changes and the uncertainty of future hydrological regimes make sustainable water resources management a difficult task, requiring a set of approaches that address climate variability and change. The book focuses on three main themes: hydrological changes, adaptive decision-making for water resources, and institutional analysis and risk management. It discusses the applications and limitations of climate change models and scenarios related to precipitation projection, which predicts to the future availability of water. It also offers interesting examples from around the globe to describe the policy options for dealing with climate change. Addressing emerging issues that need to be resolved and techniques that can be applied for sustainable climate-change-sensitive water resources protection and management, this practical, state-of-the-art reference book is a valuable resource for researchers, students and professionals interested in sustainable water resources management in a changing climate.

Many challenges, including climate change, face the Nation¿s water managers. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has provided estimates of how climate may change, but more understanding of the processes driving the changes, the sequences of the changes, and the manifestation of these global changes at different scales could be beneficial. Since the changes will likely affect fundamental drivers of the hydrological cycle, climate change may have a large impact on water resources and water resources managers. The purpose of this interagency report is to explore strategies to improve water management by tracking, anticipating, and responding to climate change. Charts and tables.

Describes the water management community¿s needs for climate change info. and tools to support long-term planning. Technical specialists and program managers have worked with their planners, water operators, and environmental compliance managers to identify the information and tools most relevant to their programs. They also have engaged and consulted with other Federal, State, and local agencies and stakeholder groups that have a role in water and water-related resource management to identify complementary priorities and individual perspectives. This report will help focus research and technology efforts to address info. and tools gaps relevant to the water management user community. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand report.

National and global security can be assessed in many ways but one underlying factor for all humanity is access to reliable sources of water for drinking, sanitation, food production and manufacturing industry. In many parts of the world, population growth and an escalating demand for water already threaten the sustainable management of available water supplies. Global warming, climate change and rising sea level are expected to intensify the resource sustainability issue in many water-stressed regions of the world by reducing the annual supply of renewable fresh water and promoting the intrusion of saline water into aquifers along sea coasts, where 50% of the global population reside. Pro-active resource management decisions are required, but such efforts would be futile unless reliable predictions can be made about the impact of the changing global conditions on the water cycle and the quality and availability of critical water reserves. Addressing this wide spectrum of issues, a team of expert authors discusses here the impacts of climate change on the global water resources, the long-term resource management goals at global and local scales, the data requirements and the scientific and technical advances necessary to mitigate the associated impacts.

The book explores the geo-chemical, physical, social and economic impacts of climate change on water supplies. It contains examples and case studies from a wide range of countries, and addresses the need to promote sustainable water use across the world.