3.3 Assumptions about future trends

In Chapter 2, scenarios of the main drivers of climate change and their impacts are presented. This section describes how the driving forces of freshwater systems are assumed to develop in the future, with a focus on the dominant drivers during the 21st century. Climate-related and non-climatic drivers are distinguished. Assumptions about future trends in non-climatic drivers are necessary in order to assess the vulnerability of freshwater systems to climate change, and to compare the relative importance of climate change impacts and impacts due to changes in non-climatic drivers.