UWaRes

Pressure on water resources has been increasing globally due to rising demand for food and energy, perpetual economic growth and improving living standards. Climate change further complicates water resource availability, and conflicting interests in allocating limited water resources among industries, households, and agriculture prevent a fair share of the available resources at the expense of the environment. How can we, as scientists, effectively assist future water planning while water managers are often confronted with insufficient and inaccessible data and models, high uncertainties, and vague scenarios?

The Helmholtz Young Investigator Group UWaRes at GERICS addresses these shortcomings by combining process-focused climate and impact-focused water resources models, guided by the practical challenges experienced by end-users and water managers. The group pursues the collaborative implementation of water use into a regional climate model that enables coupled assessments of the water use-climate feedback. The group utilizes a broad range of available climate data to assess present conditions and future changes in the availability of green and blue water resources.