The implications of the Cliamte Change on Water

The World Water Assessment Programme launched the third UN World
Water Development Report, Water in a Changing World, in March 2009 at
the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul. The present document summarizes
some of the key messages from that report, highlighting the potential
impacts of a changing climate on the availability of water and on the control
of water extremes.

Water is the lifeblood of the planet and the state of the resource affects all
natural, social and economic systems.
Water is the fundamental link between the climate system, human society
and the environment.

Key messages:

• There is mounting evidence in many regions of the impact of climate

change on the earth's hydrological cycle

• Climate change is a basic driver of change in water resource availability

and use alongside demographic, economic, social and technological
forces, with which it interacts in a dynamic fashion.

• Lateral thinking ‘out of the box' is essential both from those within the

water sector and all others whose decisions have a major impact on water.

• Information about the status of availability and use of water and the

potential impact of climate change is too poor to support informed policy
decisions. There is an urgent need to gather, analyse and model data at
all relevant levels - globally, regionally and locally - and to reverse the
decline in observational systems.

• Alongside mitigation, Governments must adapt to climate change,

and give priority to water resources management as a key aspect of
adaptation to changes already in train.

• Due to future uncertainties, the keynote for adaptation must be resilience

- managing risks and building the capacity to deal with unpredictable
events. No-regret and low-regret measures should be prioritised.

Contact information	n/a
News type	Inbrief
File link	http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001863/186317E.pdf
Source of information	UNESCO Water
Keyword(s)	climate change
Subject(s)	RISKS AND CLIMATOLOGY
Relation	http://www.emwis.net/topics/climatechange
Geographical coverage	International
News date	08/12/2009
Working language(s)	ENGLISH

---