Assessing climate change impacts on the quantity of water in Alpine regions: Foreword to the adaptation and policy implications of the EU/FP7 “ACQWA” project

This paper provides a short introduction to the special issue of “Environmental Science and Policy” dedicated to policy issues emerging from the large integrating European “ACQWA” project. This 5-year research project focused on upstream–downstream links related to water resources in mountains where snow and ice are a major component of the hydrological cycle – and thus extremely vulnerable to climatic change. Contributions to this special issue explore issues of governance in different socio-political contexts (Europe, Chile, Kyrgyzstan), and for environmental and economic sectors that compete for water, such as freshwater ecosystems, agriculture or energy (hydropower).