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Since the mid-20th century, changes in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather and climate events have been observed, including a decrease in cold temperature extremes, an increase in warm temperature extremes, an increase in extremely high sea levels and an increase in the number of heavy precipitation events in a number of regions (Min et al., 2011).
Climate projections indicate with high confidence that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions, but also that heatwaves will occur more often and last longer. The former will increase global flood risk (Hirabayashi et al., 2013), while the latter is expected to make droughts more intense (Trenberth et al., 2014). These risks are unevenly distributed geographically, and are generally larger for vulnerable people and communities in countries at all levels of development (IPCC, 2014a).

Figure 1. Global water withdrawals throughout the previous century
Figure 2. Climate change scenario trends in water availability
Figure 3. Annual baseline water stress
Figure 4. Seasonal variability
Figure 5. World weather-related natural catastrophes by peril, 1980–2018
Figure 6. Spatial distribution of water-related disasters (droughts, floods, landslides and storms), 2001–2018
Figure 7. Spatial distribution of floods, 2001–2018
Figure 8. Spatial distribution of droughts, 2001–2018
Figure 9.  Electricity consumption in the water sector by process, 2014–2040
Figure 10. Number of people living under water stress under the Baseline Scenario