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Climate change impacts on water availability and hydrological extremes are major concerns as regards the Sustainable Development Goals. Impacts on hydrology are normally investigated as part of a modelling chain, in which climate projections from multiple climate models are used as inputs to multiple impact models, under different greenhouse gas emissions scenarios, which are resulting in different amounts of global temperature rise. While the goal is generally to investigate the relevance of changes in climate for the water cycle, water resources or hydrological extremes, it is often the case that variations in other components of the model chain obscure the effect of climate scenario variation. This is particularly important when assessing the impacts of relatively lower magnitudes of global warming, such as those associated with the aspirational goals of the Paris Agreement. In our study, we use ANOVA (ANalyses Of VAriance) to allocate and quantify the main sources of uncertainty in the hydrological impact modelling chain. In turn we determine the statistical significance of different sources of uncertainty. We achieve this by using a set of 5 climate models and up to 13 hydrological models, for 9 large scale river basins across the globe, under 4 emissions scenarios. The impact variable we consider in our analysis is daily river discharge. We analyze overall water availability and flow regime, including seasonality, high flows and low flows. Scaling effects are investigated by separately looking at discharge generated by global and regional hydrological models respectively. Finally, we compare our results with other recently published studies. We find that small differences in global temperature rise associated with some emissions scenarios have mostly significant impacts on river discharge – however, climate model related uncertainty is so large that it obscures the sensitivity of the hydrological system.

Two approaches can be distinguished in studies of climate change impacts on water resources when accounting for issues related to impact model performance: (1) using a multi-model ensemble disregarding model performance, and (2) using models after their evaluation and considering model performance. We discuss the implications of both approaches in terms of credibility of simulated hydrological indicators for climate change adaptation. For that, we discuss and confirm the hypothesis that a good performance of hydrological models in the historical period increases confidence in projected impacts under climate change, and decreases uncertainty of projections related to hydrological models. Based on this, we find the second approach more trustworthy and recommend using it for impact assessment, especially if results are intended to support adaptation strategies. Guidelines for evaluation of global- and basin-scale models in the historical period, as well as criteria for model rejection from an ensemble as an outlier, are also suggested.

WOS: 000427563600009, Science Citation Index Expanded, The Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change aims not only at avoiding +2 degrees C warming (and even limit the temperature increase further to +1.5 degrees C), but also sets long-term goals to guide mitigation. Therefore, the best available science is required to inform policymakers on the importance of and the adaptation needs in a +1.5 degrees C warmer world. Seven research institutes from Europe and Turkey integrated their competencies to provide a cross-sectoral assessment of the potential impacts at a pan-European scale. The initial findings of this initiative are presented and key messages communicated. The approach is to select periods based on global warming thresholds rather than the more typical approach of selecting time periods (e.g., end of century). The results indicate that the world is likely to pass the +1.5 degrees C threshold in the coming decades. Cross-sectoral dimensions are taken into account to show the impacts of global warming that occur in parallel in more than one sector. Also, impacts differ across sectors and regions. Alongside the negative impacts for certain sectors and regions, some positive impacts are projected. Summer tourism in parts of Western Europe may be favored by climate change; electricity demand decreases outweigh increases over most of Europe and catchment yields in hydropower regions will increase. However, such positive findings should be interpreted carefully as we do not take into account exogenous factors that can and will influence Europe such as migration patterns, food production, and economic and political instability., European Union [282746]; Niels Stensen Fellowship; Veni-grant of NWO Earth and Life Sciences [863.14.008]; RCN [255397], We are grateful to use the data which were obtained during the course of work of the project IMPACT2C: Quantifying projected impacts under 2 degrees C warming. IMPACT2C has received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreement no 282746. These data were obtained freely from the IMPACT2C data archive (impact2c.dmi.dk). Dr. Michelle van Vliet was financially supported by a contribution of Niels Stensen Fellowship and a Veni-grant (project 863.14.008) of NWO Earth and Life Sciences (ALW). SPS is partially supported by RCN grant no. 255397. We would like to thank David Williams for his valuable support. The authors would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and helpful suggestions that have contributed to improve this article.

ECOSUPPORT-projektet syftar till att ta fram forskningsresultat om Östersjöns miljöstatus under olika scenarier av belastning av näringsämnen och fisketryck i ett framtida klimat. Resultaten kan ligga till grund som vägledning för beslutsfattare. För att forskningsresultaten skall kunna göras begripliga och tillgängliga har en ny form av vetenskapskommunikation prövats. Presentation av en stor mängd data samt beskrivning av fysiska och biogeokemiska processer på land och i havet gjordes med hjälp av en speciell visualiseringsplatform, Uniview, som visades på en kupolformad filmduk inuti en uppblåsbar domteater. Visualiseringen visades för olika typer av publik, t.ex. för beslutsfattare, politisk ledning, forskare och studenter. Överlag så har responsen varit mycket positiv och de flesta som tagit del av visningarna menar att den här formen av kommunikation gör det lättare att förstå och ta till sig komplexa data och sammanhang. Denna åsikt delades också av de vetenskapliga presentatörerna The ECOSUPPORT-project aims to help policy makers by supplying state-of-the-art research on the state of the Baltic Sea under different scenarios of nutrient supply, pressure from fisheries and impact of climate change. In order to make the research results accessible, a new form of scientific communication has been tested. Presentation of research data and physical, chemical and biogeochemical processes on land and in the sea were made using a special visualization platform, Uniview, which was projected onto a cupola-shaped screen inside an inflatable, enclosed dome. The visualization has been tested on different audiences including policy makers, politicians, researchers and university students. Overall, the response has been overwhelmingly positive with the audience expressing the view that the used visualization technique enhanced their understanding and receptiveness. This view was shared with the scientific presenters.