Global Change alters the current and future living conditions of people. Therefor, there is an increasing need to shift research towards practical applications in order to provide answers to the questions raised by stakeholders and decision-makers. As a major contribution to this effort the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched the program GLOWA in the year 2000. GLOWA is embedded in the BMBF research framework program on Research for Sustainable Development.

GLOWA's aim is to develop simulation-tools which will help to realize a sustainable water management under global change conditions. In direct cooperation with the local and regional stakeholders and decision-makers, scientifically sound strategies are being developed to secure water

• availability,
• quality and
• allocation.

GLOWA takes into account global environmental changes and socioeconomic framework conditions. The projects tackle the following scientific core themes in an interdisciplinary and integrative research approach:

• Climate change, variability of precipitation, variations caused by human activities and their effect on the hydrological cycle
• Interactions between biosphere/ land use and the hydrological cycle
• Water availability and conflicting water uses