The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2012: Assessing the Impacts on Water Resources to Inform Policy Makers
- Steven D. Wade,
- Jemima Rance,
- Nick Reynard
- … show all 3 hide
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Abstract
The Climate Change Act 2008 requires a series of assessments of the risks of climate for the UK, under both current conditions and over the long term, to 2100. This paper describes the research completed on the impacts of climate change on the UK water sector, involving stakeholder engagement and a mix of literature review, expert elicitation and broad-scale quantitative analysis to develop ten climate change risk metrics. These include measures of the demand for water, impacts on supply, water quality and asset performance using future scenarios based on the UK Climate Projections 2009 and future population projections from the Office for National Statistics. The analysis has resulted in a number of key findings that can help to inform policy in different parts of the UK. Overall the assessment showed that there is likely to be increased pressure on water resources in the UK. These pressures need to be considered in long term plans so that the needs of different users are met without impacting on the environment.
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About this Article
- Title
- The UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2012: Assessing the Impacts on Water Resources to Inform Policy Makers
- Journal
-
Water Resources Management
Volume 27, Issue 4 , pp 1085-1109 - Cover Date
- 2013-03-01
- DOI
- 10.1007/s11269-012-0205-z
- Print ISSN
- 0920-4741
- Online ISSN
- 1573-1650
- Publisher
- Springer Netherlands
- Additional Links
- Topics
- Keywords
-
- Climate change risk assessment
- UK water resources
- Science-policy interface
- Stakeholder engagement
- UKCP09
- Industry Sectors
- Authors
-
-
Steven D. Wade
(1)
- Jemima Rance (1)
- Nick Reynard (2)
-
Steven D. Wade
- Author Affiliations
-
- 1. HR Wallingford Ltd., Howbery Park, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BA, UK
- 2. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Maclean Building Benson Lane Crowmarsh Gifford Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK