Impacts of Global Change on the Hydrological Cycle in West and Northwest Africa

Africa is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. In particular shortage of fresh water is expected to be the dominant water problem for West and Northwest Africa of the 21th century. In order to solve present and projected future problems concerning fresh water supply, a highly interdisciplinary approach is used in the book. Strategies are offered for a sustainable and future-oriented water management. Based on different scenarios, a range of management options is suggested with the aid of Information Systems and Spatial Decision Support Systems for two river catchments in Northwest and West Africa: the wadi Dra in south-eastern Morocco and the Oum basin in Benin. The selected catchments are representative in the sense: "what can be learnt from these catchments for other similar catchments?