PROJECTS

Global facility for calculating investments needed to bridge the climate induced water gap

PROJECT TYPE

Innovation – Develops and brings to market climaterelevant knowledge, products and services

LOCATION

Pan European, co-ordinated from the Netherlands

START DATE
September 2012
LEAD PARTNER
THEME

Land and water

PARTNERS
Utrecht University
FutureWater
Imperial College London
Deltares
Carthago Consultancy

As a result of climate change, global water resources are running scarce. However, there are a number of adaptation strategies that can be implemented, providing ways to cope with a changing environment. The Water2Invest project aims to develop a service that will allow users to assess the demand and availability of water resources and subsequently assess the effectiveness and costs of adaptation strategies to reduce the impact of climate change.

As a result of climate change, global water supplies are expected to shrink. Meanwhile, freshwater resources are in high demand for agricultural, industrial and domestic uses. Climate change causes a rise in global temperature and, in turn, increases the atmosphere’s capacity to hold water vapour. This can lead to heavy rainfall which could add to water resources, but often causes rapid movement of fresh water supplies back to oceans. Climate change is likely to cause water cycle intensification, leading to more extreme floods and droughts globally.