Hydro-climatic changes and their monitoring in the Arctic: Observation-model comparisons and prioritization options for monitoring development

•We investigate strategies for prioritization of Arctic hydro-climatic monitoring.•Results show conflicting prioritization basis across 14 major Arctic basins.•Current monitoring is partly relevant for present but not projected future changes.•Major spatial shifts must be anticipated with regard to climate change severity.•Temporal shifts must be anticipated with precipitation decrease turning to increase.

SummaryThe Arctic undergoes particularly large and rapid hydro-climatic changes, and information on hydrological responses to these changes is crucial to plan for societal adaptation. We investigate hydro-climatic change severity and monitoring in 14 major hydrological basins across the pan-Arctic, in view of different possible strategies for their monitoring prioritization. Results show that the current distribution of monitoring density in these basins is more relevant for so far observed precipitation changes than for observed temperature changes, or for projected future temperature and precipitation changes. Furthermore, present and projected future hot-spots of greatest hydro-climatic change differ spatially, so that major spatial shifts must occur in the future among the different Arctic basins in order for observations and climate model projections to converge with regard to hydro-climatic change severity. Also temporally, observation-model convergence requires that important change direction shifts occur in major Arctic basins, which have currently decreasing precipitation while model projections imply future increasing precipitation within them. Different prioritization options for rational development of hydro-climatic monitoring can be argued for based on the present results. The divergent prioritization options imply a need for an explicit strategy for achieving certain information goals, which must be selected from a larger set of different possible goals based on societal importance.