Modelling the impacts of climatic change on water resources

Following the prolonged drought at the end of the 1980s in the south east of the UK, Anglian Water undertook (a) to review the reliable yields of their resource systems and (b) to investigate the potential risks associated with alternative future investment programmes. One of the major identifiable risks is climate Change, and there is a clear need to understand how different scenarios of climate change could affect the reliable output of existing sources, and thereby affect investment programmes. This paper highlights the approach which was adopted to model climate change impacts on rainfall, and on the limitations which exist for this type of assessment.