Aspects of Climate Variability and the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme

This chapter is intended to provide an indication of how the contents of this book fit within the framework of the UNESCO International Hydrological Programme and associated partners (e.g. WMO, IGBP-BAHC, GEWEX) under the umbrella of WCP-Water (World Climate Programme-Water). To achieve this objective, this short contribution will select some of the cross-cutting issues which link some of findings from the paleoclimatic studies, with the problems of using outputs from atmospheric General Circulation Models (GCMs) in hydrology and water resources planning. Reference will also be made to contributions from the combined efforts of the micrometeorological-hydrology communities towards improving GCMs which forms a very active sub-project of the IHP. This latter aim requires my going into more detail so that the non-specialist has a better appreciation of the current difficulties in coupling hydrological models with GCMs. Subsequently the value in developing climatic variability scenarios based on paleoclimatic and historical evidence should therefore become apparent.