Integrating risks of climate change into water management

Received 21 July 2014; accepted 16 September 2014The Working Group II contribution to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC WG II AR5, cf. Field et al. 2014) critically reviewed tens of thousands of recent publications to assess current scientific knowledge on climate change impacts, vulnerability and adaptation. Chapter 3 of the report focuses on freshwater resources, but water issues are also prominent in other sectoral chapters and in the regional chapters of the Working Group II report, as well as in various chapters of the Working Group I contribution (IPCC WG I AR5, cf. Stocker et al. 2013). With this paper, the lead authors, a review editor and the chapter scientist of the freshwater chapter of the WG II AR5 (Jiménez et al. 2014) wish to summarize their assessment of the most relevant risks of climate change related to freshwater systems and to show how assessment and reduction of those risks can be integrated into water management.Peer reviewe