Call for Papers: Climate Change Adaptation and Water Resources

A special issue of International Journal of Water

Climate change is expected to have significant impacts on water supplies and water quality. In some areas the seasonal timing of water flow is shifting, which will affect the availability of water for agriculture. Changes in quantity, timing and intensity of precipitation may result in more floods and droughts, as well as greater uncertainty about supply.

Sea level rise will result in saltwater intrusion into coastal fresh water aquifers, potentially reducing water resource availability. At the same time the world population is increasing and putting more pressure on water resources, which in areas of scarcity may result in transboundary conflicts.

This special issue is devoted to questions such as:

• How do we manage water supplies in the face of increased variability?
• Are different institutional arrangements required?
• Is it possible to change demand and the way we use water?
• How might we use and allocate water resources more efficiently?

Answering this range of questions requires the skills of many disciplines. As such, this issue is open to a large range of disciplines – papers from climate science, catchment hydrology and water engineering through to resource/ecological economics, law and policy are welcome. The notion is to present a set of papers that cover the range of issues associated with adapting to the changes in water supply which occur due to climate change.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Altering infrastructure or institutional arrangements
• Changing demand for water
• Strategies for managing risk in supply
• Improving water use efficiency
• Planning for alternative water sources
• Changing water allocations between users
• Protecting coastal freshwater resources from saltwater intrusion
• Modelling the policy implications of reduced water supply
• Water markets
• Transboundary water issues

Important Date
Deadline for submission: 31 July, 2011