Managing the impact of climate change on water

Climate change is having a profound effect on the environment, especially on the quality and availability of water resources. The consequences are significant. Water-related natural disasters, such as flooding, drought, and landslides, are more frequent and more severe. Rising temperatures, causing increased evaporation and glacial melt, are reducing the reliability and quality of water supplies.

IDRC’s Climate Change and Water program aims to help the world’s most vulnerable people adapt to the water-related impacts of climate change. The goal: to support research that improves climate change adaptation efforts, at the policy level and in practice.

Read the “about” and “approach” pages for more information about our program. You can also download our program brochure in English, French, and Spanish.

A fuller description can be found in our program’s prospectus (available in English, French, and Spanish).

Subscribe to our newsletter for up-to-date information on our work.

Latest Project

Using ICTs to Address Water Challenges in Uganda

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) can play an important role in helping communities prepare for and adapt to the effects of climate change. Various projects can attest to the potential

Latest Result

Preparing for floods on Argentina's Pampas

Over the past 50 years, floods and drought have severely affected lives and livelihoods across the Western Argentinean Pampas, a vast plain of cropland and pasture. Climate change is expected to bring more frequent extreme weather events to the...


News

Eight students receive awards to study climate change and water

10/01/2012

Eight students in Africa, Asia, and Canada have been selected to receive IDRC’s Climate Change and Water (CCW) 2011 Adaptation H2O graduate research awards. They were recommended on the basis of their innovative research relating to climate change...

Canada’s Environment Minister announces recipients of climate change research

01/12/2011

On November 25, Canada's Environment Minister, the Honourable Peter Kent, announced funding for seven winning projects from across Africa that will support important and innovative initiatives to better equip the African continent to deal with the...

Events

Highlight: Exhibit focused on novel ways of solving urban problems

01/10/2011

How can design address the complex challenges facing a growing number of urban poor around the world and help to build healthier cities? This question was addressed in the Design with the Other 90%: Cities exhibit, which ran from October 2011 to...

Highlight: IDRC at the World Water Congress

05/12/2011

IDRC’s Climate Change and Water (CCW) program staff and partners participated in the 14th World Water Congress in Porto de Galinhas, Brazil, from September 25 to 29, 2011. Among several activities coordinated by IDRC, two sessions particularly...

Attention graduate students! 

Learn more about the Adaptation H20 awards program

Latest Results

Over the past 50 years, floods and drought have severely affected lives and livelihoods across the Western Argentinean Pampas, a vast plain of cropland and pasture. Climate change is expected to bring more frequent extreme weather events to the...

Latest Results

This ICT4D article series features results from innovative research on participatory geographic information systems (P-GIS) in Africa. From land tenure and gender to food and water security, the articles present the most pressing resource challenges...

Latest Results

Can action research create participatory spaces for the resolution of environmental problems? How can governments and residents work together to provide environmental services? How does the political context impede or promote these efforts? This...

Latest Results

Moreno, located 37 km west of the city of Buenos Aires, covers an area of 186 km². Made up of some 156 neighbourhoods divided within six urban districts, Moreno is considered one of the poorest municipalities in the Greater Buenos Aires Area. Close...

Latest Results

More than 8 million people live in the Lima Callao Metropolitan Area – one-third of the country’s population. This population increased 12-fold between 1940 and 2005, leading to chaotic land occupation through a horizontal, primarily informal...
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Featured Publication

Farmers adapt to climate change in Tunisia

Farmers adapt to climate change in Tunisia

In Soukra, Tunisia, hundreds of low-income families live off the crops they grow. But in recent decades, that way of life has come under growing threat from urbanization and climate change. IDRC's Focus Cities Research Initiative financed a project...

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