Infosheet: Where to go for water data?

Fresh water is central to our natural environment, economy and way of life. We rely on our rivers for our livelihoods; to supply drinking water, to generate electricity, to irrigate our food producing land, and to sustain ecosystems and taonga species. Climate change is changing the amount, and timing, of water flowing through our rivers. 

Climate change will affect water in Aotearoa in many different ways, from the amount of snowpack making it into our rivers in the springtime, to increased risk of flooding due to sea-level rise on the coasts, to impacts to groundwater levels and surface flooding during storms. Because of the complexity of modelling the water cycle, these climate change impacts are, for the most part, researched and modelled in different ways. There are a range of research groups who have modelled or are working to model these impacts, and this infosheet outlines what information is available and where you can find it

The majority of this work is funded through short term contestable research funding, and as such, the timing of updates is unknown.