Water

Many of the projected increases in extreme weather and climate events will have a direct impact on water resources, for example:

• It is likely that the frequency of heavy precipitation will increase in the 21st century over many regions.

• There is evidence, providing a basis for medium confidence, that droughts will intensify over the coming century in southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, central Europe, central North America, Central America and Mexico, north-east Brazil, and southern Africa. Confidence is limited because of definitional issues about how to classify and measure a drought, a lack of observational data, and the inability of models to include all the factors that influence droughts.

• It is very likely that average sea level rise will contribute to upward trends in extreme coastal high-water levels causing coastal flooding and saltwater intrusion into the groundwater.

• Projected precipitation and temperature changes imply changes in the frequency and severity of flood events in many regions of the world.

Explore our stories, resources and projects to improve the climate resilience of water management, below.