Bringing Future Climatic Change into Water Resources Management Practice Today

The global climate is changing and altering the hydrologic cycle that results in (i) reduction of water supply; (ii) increase in frequency and magnitude of flood and drought events; (iii) damage to the shoreline areas; (iv) increase in irrigation water use; (v) decrease in quality of all freshwater sources; and (vi) increase in functional and operational requirements for the existing water infrastructure. The paper provides the review of water resources management challenges posed by the climate change. In order to provide guidance for including climate change impacts into water management studies, a generic approach is detailed for potential implementation in practice. Methods for selecting global climate models and emission scenarios, followed by bias correction and downscaling are discussed. The paper ends with the description of one practical example, IDF_CC, a web based tool for updating intensity duration frequency curves under changing climate. The tool is designed in response to real needs of water engineering practice and has been in use in Canada since early 2015.