In Peru, about 50% of the energy is produced from hydropower plants. An important amount of this energy is produced with water from glaciated catchments. In these catchments river streamflow is furthermore needed for other socio-economic activities such as agriculture. However, the amount and seasonality of water from glacial melt is expected to undergo strong changes. As glaciers are projected to further decline with continued warming, runoff will become more and more sensitive to possible changes in precipitation patterns. Moreover, as stated by a recent study (Neukom et al., 2015), wet season precipitation sums in the Central Andes could decrease up to 19-33 % by the end of the 21st century compared to present-day conditions. Here, we investigate future runoff availability for selected glacierized catchments in the Peruvian Andes. In a first step, we apply a simplified energy balance ...

Water from glaciers is crucial for the Peruvian hydropower production. Hence, we investigate the glacier-atmosphere and climate interactions in the Cordillera Vilcanota, considering scenarios of significant precipitation reductions until 2100. The glacier mass balance model ITGG-2.0 is used for analysing the energy balance components regarding the projections. The results indicate that a precipitation decrease not only affects the accumulation rate of glaciers but also influences the ablation energy availability. Therefore, glacier retreat in the Central Andes is expected to accelerate, making water availability unsustainable and likely leading to future shortages for the hydropower sector and for other water consuming systems.