Climate and Climate Change

For a basic understanding of the findings on climate change and its regional manifestations, as well as for understanding the impacts of climate change on the components of the regional hydrological cycle and wind regime, some fundamental concepts and relationships need to be discussed. Within this chapter the following aspects are discussed in an introductory manner:

• Difference between weather and climate
• Difference between climate variability and climate change
• Causes of climate change
• General impacts of climate change in a global scale
• Climate models and regional projections