Uncertain water resources in a changing world - Co-designed pathways toward sustainable water futures

Speaker: Dr. Peter Greve - Research Scholar - Water Program
IIASA - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Abstract

Sufficient availability of freshwater is vital to humans, economies, and ecosystems. However, high water demand from industries, households, and agriculture often leads to water scarcity and prevents a fair share of the available resources at the expense of the environment. Global change will further exacerbate water scarcity worldwide. How can climate science and hydrology effectively assist future water planning while water managers are often confronted with insufficient and inaccessible data and models, high uncertainties, and vague scenarios? A new Helmholtz Young Investigator Group at GERICS will address these shortcomings by bringing together the process-focused climate modeling and the impact-focused world of water resources models, guided by the practical challenges experienced by end-users and water managers. The group pursues the collaborative development of water use models that will be, for the first time, implemented into a regional climate model to enable unprecedented, coupled assessments of the water use-climate feedback. It further aims to foster the participatory design of water scenarios following storylines and stakeholder visions to provide a new end user-driven perspective on future water availability and potential pathways toward sustainable water futures.

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