Multimodel assessment of water scarcity under climate change

Water scarcity severely impairs food security and economic prosperity in many countries today. Expected future population changes will, in many countries as well as globally, increase the pressure on available water resources. On the supply side, renewable water resources will be affected by projected changes in precipitation patterns, temperature, and other climate variables. Here we use a large ensemble of global hydrological models (GHMs) forced by five global climate models and the latest greenhouse-gas concentration scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways) to synthesize the current knowledge about climate change impacts on water resources. We show that climate change is likely to exacerbate…

• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• DO
  Department of Energy and Climate Change

  Award: GA01101
• DF
  Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK Government

  Award: GA01101
• EC
  European Commission

  Awards: FP7/2007-2013, 2007-2013, FP7/2007, 266992
• MO
  Met Office

  Award: GA01101
• MO
  Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• BF
  Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung

  Award: 01LS1201A
• JS
  Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

  Award: 23226012