As part of its Program Rhine 2040 entitled "The Rhine and its Catchment - Sustainably Managed and Climate-resilient", the ICPR mandated its climate expert group (EG HCLIM) with an update of the ICPR climate scenarios by 2024. This has now been completed and published as ICPR technical report no. 297. While the previous ICPR scenarios, published in 2011, were based on information of the 4th assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this update generally relies on the 5th IPCC assessment. These new scenarios form the basis for updating the climate change adaptation strategy of the Rhine basin by 2025.
As in the previous version, the new ICPR discharge scenarios combine currently existing knowledge and data from the riparian countries on the consequences of climate change on the hydrology of the Rhine. Unlike the previous version, the data acquisition, integration, and analysis were not done within the research network but had to be done by the ICPR expert group HCLIM.
EG HCLIM received simulated time series of daily data river flow from Switzerland, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the research network of the International Commission on the Hydrology of the Rhine basin (CHR). On behalf of EG HCLIM, a great amount of analyses was carried out by the German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) which also produced the corresponding figures. These analyses and graphs are important background information for the ICPR report no. 297 of the EG HCLIM. The report gives all information on the sources and treatment of the data and the analyzed indicators.
As the ICPR has no corresponding information system, the CHR thankfully agreed to make the files accessible via its webserver and webpage. Please consult the ICPR report no. 297 for details and conditions of use about the available data and figures.