Investigating impacts of Climate Change on the Weser estuary

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global climate change will have profound impact on our environment. This applies to estuaries in particular, as they are not only influenced by changes in the meteorological conditions, but also by the mean sea level rise, changes in river runoff regimes and possibly more intense storm surges. As this makes impact studies in estuaries rely on impact studies of neighboring systems such as watersheds or adjacent shelf seas, uncertainties may accumulate. This complicates to derive reliable projections for planners and decision makers. This contribution describes a work package of a joint climate impact project of the German state Lower Saxony. The aim of the project is to investigate impacts on hydrodynamics and salinities of the Weser estuary. The impact model used in the study is a 3D hydrodynamic modelling tool. The article focuses among others on results and discussion of a mean sea level rise scenario.