Water, Climate and Human Systems

The Water-Climate-Human Systems research area advances the understanding and modeling of climate and human impacts on the whole water cycle from mountains to plains, as well as its effects on the intensification of hazards and related societal risks.

Climate change is rapidly modifying the water cycle from the cryosphere processes in highlands to water demand in lowlands . Those changes affect runoff seasonality, water availability, frequency and severity of extreme events, such as floods and droughts, impacting both the natural ecosystem and human water uses. These conditions call for the identification and implementation of effective strategies to improve our adaptation to water-related risks. Scientific support is required to develop effective adaptation policies

In the framework of the interdisciplinary nature of the Center for Climate Change and Transformation, we would like to establish a collaborative platform for further exploiting the research on water in terms of impacts on the natural and human systems, developing links with the existing, more sectorial research on climate and water pursued by different Eurac Institutes, in particular the already established research lines on eco-hydrological modelling pursued by the Institute for Alpine Environment and the one on remote sensing of the water cycle pursued by the Institute for Earth Observation.

The activities are currently organized along two research lines: WEFE Nexus and water management adaptation to climate change.