Water and climate change: challenges for the 21st century The provision of clean safe drinking water has defined the culture of civilization in the twentieth century. Sanitation and water treatment have increased human longevity and enabled economic prosperity with significantly reduced burden from water borne disease. However, population growth, irrigation development and industrialisation over the past century have come at a cost. The energy generation- related emission of greenhouse gasses has created significant risk of anthropogenic-enhanced climate change. Receding glaciers (Barry 2006), extreme floods, pro- longed droughts and intense heatwaves are evidence of the changing climate. A changing climate brings many challenges in water availability and demand management (Vo ¨ ro ¨ smarty et al. 2000), water borne disease (Martens et al. 1995; Bryan et al. 1996) and water quality. The water sector must adapt to these changing climatic conditions by seeking alternative water resources and developing improved water management approaches that will reduce pressure on already stressed systems. Furthermore there is a need to develop and implement technologies and policies that will reduce and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The innovative responses by water utilities to address these climate change risks has resulted in pushing the frontiers in a number of areas, including desalination, reuse, stormwater harvesting and aquifer recharge. A similar scale of innovation is required to manage the dwindling surface water resources and the environmental, aesthetic and cultural benefits they provide. The new IWA Journal of Water and Climate Change is designed to be the knowledge conduit for communicating these innovative responses to water management in the face of changing climate conditions. This journal will feature peer-reviewed journal articles with three broad focuses; 1) water resources, 2) water technology and engineering, and 3) regulatory and managerial issues. The focus on water resources ranges from atmospheric science and rainfall studies, to reservoir management, and generally covers the issue of water volume. The water technology and engineer- ing theme addresses the challenges of converting water resources into potable water supplies and delivery to consumers. An additional focus is energy-efficient treatment for reuse of wastewaters. Finally, the regulatory and managerial issues focus addresses the people and systems necessary for responding to climate change risks. Our focus is the entire globe, and our journal is global, with our editorial board representing Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Please welcome, support, and use this journal to help move from the problems of the present to the opportunities of the future. Justin D. Brookes Water Research Centre, School of Earth and Environmental Science, The University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia Charles M. Ainger Centre for Sustainable Development, Cambridge University, Department of Engineering; Sustainable Development Consultant, MWH, UK Carol Howe UNESCO-IHE, Westvest 7, P.O. Box 3015, 2601 DA, Delft, The Netherlands John W. Norton Jr MWH Americas, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA Geoffrey Schladow Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Davis, USA REFERENCES Barry, R. G. 2006 The status of research on glaciers and global glacier recession: a review. Prog. Phys. Geogr. 30, 285–306. Bryan, J. H., Foley, D. H. & Sutherst, R. W. 1996 Malaria transmission and climate change in Australia. Med. J. Aust. 164, 345–347. Martens, W. J. M., Jetten, T. H., Rotmans, J. & Niessen, L. W. 1995 Climate change and vector-borne diseases: a global modelling perspective. Glob Environ. Change 5, 195–209. Vo ¨ ro ¨ smarty, C. J., Green, P., Salisbury, J. & Lammers, R. B. 2000 Global water resources: vulnerability from climate change and population growth. Science 289, 284–288. doi: 10.2166/wcc.2010.100 1 Q IWA Publishing 2010 Journal of Water and Climate Change | 01.1 | 2010