QUEST-GSI Water Resources Workshop

The QUEST-GSI Water Resources Workshop, organised by UCL Geography and funded by the NERC QUEST Programme, provided an opportunity for collaborating scientists from China, South Africa, Brazil and Canada to present and discuss the latest research findings on the impacts of scaled increases in global mean air temperature (1.0ºC to 6.0ºC in 1.0ºC increments) as well as defined climate and socio-economic scenarios (IPCC SRES A1b, A2, B1, B2) on freshwater resources at the basin scale in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Basin-scale results were also compared with outputs from a global hydrological model run at the Walker Institute, University of Reading (UK).

Critically, the workshop also enabled scientists to engage in roundtable discussions of these latest research outputs and their policy implications with stakeholders from WaterAid, World Wildlife Fund, UNESCO-IHP (FRIEND, HELP, GRAPHIC programmes), Global Water System Project, and UK government departments (DECC, DFID, DEFRA). Links to key presentations and messages emanating from the workshop are provided below.

Workshop Key Messages (.pdf)

Presentations

QUEST-GSI Basin-scale water resources

• Richard Taylor, Martin Todd & Julian Thompson, UCL Geography, UK (.pdf)

Projected hydrological change in the Americas

• River Liard Basin (.pdf), Robin Thorne, Department of Geography, McMaster University, Canada
• Rio Grande Basin (.pdf), Walter Collischonn & Marcio Nobrega, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Projected hydrological change in Africa

• River Okavango Basin (.pdf), Denis Hughes, IWR, Rhodes University, South Africa
• Tributary of the Upper Nile Basin (.pdf), Daniel Kingston, UCL Geography, UK

Projected hydrological change in Asia

• River Changjiang (Yangtze) Basin (.pdf), Yan Huang & Yang Wenfa, Changjiang Water Resources Commission, China
• River Mekong Basin (.pdf), Daniel Kingston, UCL Geography, UK
• Tributaries of the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers (.pdf), Hongmei Xu, National Climate Centre, China

Projected global hydrological change

• Global Water Resources (.pdf), Nigel Arnell, Simon Gosling & Matt Charlton, Walker Institute, University of Reading, UK
• Global - Basin Model Comparison (.pdf), Simon Gosling & Nigel Arnell, Walker Institute, University of Reading, UK