After successfully completing this course, the student will:

Traditionally, the terrestrial part of the hydrological cycle is mainly studied by hydrologists while the atmospheric part is left to atmospheric science. As a consequence, apart from the study of evaporation, the two sciences have shown but limited interaction. The last two decades however, have shown an increased interest in climate change an its impacts, not only by the atmospheric science community, but also by hydrologists. The first studies on hydrology and climate that were performed by hydrologists mainly focussed on the impact of climate change and variability on the water balance and river discharge. Recently, atmospheric scientist have turned more and more to hydrology to come up with better land-atmosphere parameterisations in order to improve climate models and weather prediction. These developments together have led to an almost separate hydrological discipline called 'climate hydrology'  where hydrological systems are viewed as part of the climate system being both influenced by climate change and variability, as well as constraining the climate system through positive and negative feedbacks. The study of the hydrological cycle in the context of the climate system has developed sufficiently to warrant a self-contained course on the subject.
 

The course consists of 20 separate sessions of half a day each, in which a separate subject is treated by an expert. The sessions consist of a) lectures providing a state-of-the-art review on the subject; b) the introduction of on going controversies and big open questions regarding the subject using a number of key paper; c) discussion of controversies, big questions and possible venues of new research with the course attendants. The course outline is as follows: