Both developed and developing countries face serious challenges in the water sector due to overexploitation of a limited and unevenly distributed water resource. This puts pressure on the water resource, the water environment, water habitats and the ecological systems. In the future these pressures will be exacerbated on the one hand by rapid population growth and increasing urbanization and on the other hand by the potential impacts of climate change such as increasing temperatures and changes in rainfall patterns and amounts.
With this continued and increasing stress on the water resource and the water environment there is clearly a widespread need for planning for measures to minimize the social, economic and environmental impacts of this stress. In this context IWRM approaches along with tools forecasting the changed availability and the changed use of water play an important role. DHI leading position within the field of integrated management of land and water resources in combination with DHI’s physically-based water resources, water environment and ecological models offer a comprehensive framework required for understanding the impacts of climate change on the water environment, the interaction between atmosphere and the hydrological cycle and planning for climate change adaptation.