This issues identified in the next pages are not exhaustive but indicative of the type of issues freshwater IW projects should be considering. A simple summary of key issues is presented for rivers, lakes, groundwaters and wetlands, however, projects should be aware of the inter-linkages between these water types are significant when following an IWRM approach.

Climate variability and change will have impacts on both the amount of precipitation and the annual distribution, which, linked with extreme events, can lead to additional problems from poor water retention on land (for example in winter) and excess erosion with impacts for both water quality (e.g. nutrients pollution) and sediment transport.