Climate and Environment
Water is a renewable resource as well as a powerful influence on climate and society. Research for more sustainable societies calls for interdisciplinary collaboration between hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecology, engineering, socio-economic issues as well as decision-making processes.
Water is an essential resource for all forms of life on our planet. Our society relies on sufficient and clean drinking water and puts strains on available water resources as we need water for agriculture, industry, energy production, recreation and more. But water resources are very sensitive to external climatic variations, which implies that changing climate conditions (e.g. warmer temperatures, shifts in precipitation patterns) will alter the water cycle and thereby control water quantity and quality. In some areas, future water demand is expected to increase, which stresses already shrinking water resources even more. Other areas will rather be affected by increasing runoff (flooding) or sea level rise, which can damage infrastructure and will influence water quality. Consequently, the goal of our research project is to study potential effects of a changing climate on surface water quantity and quality in Sweden.
Subprojects:
- Hydrological Responses to Changing Climate Conditions in the Boreal Region
- Combined Effects of Forest Clear-Cutting and Changing Climate Conditions on Forest Hydrology
- Climate Change Impacts on Nitrogen in the Boreal Region
- Regional Quantification of Climatic and Anthropogenic Impacts on River Streamflow in Sweden
Contacts: Claudia Teutschbein, Thomas Grabs
