Climate Change Impact Assessment on Water Resources–A Review

Abstract

Water been a spatio-temporal variable resource have various uncertainties affecting the hydrological cycle that should be properly understood for management of water resources. Hydro-meteorological events like floods, droughts, cyclones, glacier melting, etc. are occurring frequently nowadays and are of great concern to hydrologist and climate scientists. These events are ignited due to combined effect of climate change, land use and land cover (LULC) changes and anthropogenic activities in the watershed. Various researchers, scientists and organizations are now working on climate change impact along with its mitigation and adaptation strategies to be adopted in regional and global level. This review paper aims in providing basic, essential and integrated information for hydrologist and beginners working in the field of climate change impact assessment on water resources. The terms such as emission scenarios, representative concentration pathways (RCPs), general circulation model (GCM), regional climate model (RCM), data downscaling, bias correction and uncertainties in climate modelling are discussed. The paper summarizes past literature and concludes with appropriate and most frequently used models and methods adopted in each step of climate change impact assessment. This will help researchers to perform acceptable assessment and give rational results that can help policy makers to take appropriate decisions regarding adaptation and mitigation strategies.