Climate change induced modifications of hydro-meteorological extreme events and their impacts on water resources for agriculture in the Mediterranean

It is common today to consider that climate is expected to change or even climate change is present and evident.  A changing climate leads to changes in the frequency, intensity, spatial extent, duration, and timing of climate extremes, and may result in unprecedented events. Changes in extremes of a climate variable are not always related in a simple way to changes in the mean of the same variable or a hydrological variable, and in some cases may be of opposite sign to a change in the mean of the variable.  Also, the changes vary from one geographical region to another.   In this review paper, examples of climate change impact studies on hydro-meteorological extremes, i.e. extreme precipitation, floods and droughts, in the Mediterranean region, are presented and discussed.  In this geographical area, agriculture is the main consumer of water, demanding 60-90% of the total water use. The impacts of the climate change induced modifications of hydro-meteorological extremes and water management practices on the availability of surface water and groundwater resources are also discussed.