Recent scientific assessment studies of climate change impacts, including those from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, provide evidence of the negative effects of climate variability and change on natural and human systems. For instance, recent climate trends have caused loss in wheat and maize production, negatively affected coral reefs, and changed characteristics of some hazards in high-mountain regions. Assessment studies furthermore suggest that related risks to ecosystems, commerce, and daily life may increase over the coming decades as temperatures warm. Adaptation to climate change is required to reduce the effects of unavoidable changes, especially for the most vulnerable regions and populations. © 2012. American Geophysical Union.

Original abstract: For the past 30 years, a process of glacier retreat has been observed in the Andes, raising alarm among regional water resources managers. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of the role of Andean glaciers in the hydrology of their associated watersheds, which is appropriate for application at a river basin scale, with an eye towards creating an analytical tool that can be used to assess the water management implications of possible future glacier retreat. While the paper delves deeply into our formulation of a glacier module within a water resources management modelling system, the widely subscribed Water Evaluation and Planning System (WEAP), the originality of our work lies less in the domain of glaciology and more in how we apply an existing reduced form representation of glacier evolution within a model of the climate-glacier-hydrology-water management...