Downscaling methods applied to Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Models (AOGCM)
During the last decade, a large volume of literature has been published on the development of “downscaling” methods from the global to the hydrological scale in order to estimate the impact of global climate change on the availability and distribution of water resources. The present paper proposes a comprehensive review and a synthesis of climatic downscaling methodologies presented in the literature in order to simulate the regional response to global climate change. The paper focuses mainly on recent advances in the field, and on the practical problems that may arise from the application of the various models in impact studies. The paper presents also a discussion of the advantages and limitations of the various methods. The paper concluded with some suggestions for future work dealing with the impacts of global change on water resources.