Climate Change Impacts and Water Resource Management and Planning

Sustainable water resource planning for climate change is a process of assessing risks related to climate change, evaluating and selecting strategies that are based on current hydrological knowledge, using climate models, monitoring existing conditions, and providing guidelines for adaptation and the optimal use of available water resources for the benefit of the society. This chapter provides a road map to show how climate projections can be incorporated into water management decisions. In particular, it explores which projections to use and how to relate them to planning assumptions on water supplies, water demands, and operating restraints, and it also provides useful recommendations on how to improve water resource planning and management and on how to proceed with effective water policy actions considering climate variability and change.