Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-11 (section)

==== 11.3.3.1 Observed Impacts ====

<div id="h3-7-siblings" class="h3-siblings"></div>

Streamflow has generally increased in northern Australia and decreased in southern Australia since the mid-1970s ( ''high confidence'' ) ( [[#Zhang--2016|Zhang et al., 2016]] ). Declining river flows since the mid-1970s in southwest Australia have led to changed water management ( [[#WA%20Government--2012|WA Government, 2012]] ; [[#WA%20Government--2016|WA Government, 2016]] ). The large decline in river flows during the so-called 1997–2009 Millennium drought in southeast Australia resulted in low irrigation water allocations, severe water restrictions and major environmental impacts ( [[#Potter--2010|Potter et al., 2010]] ; [[#Chiew--2011|Chiew and Prosser, 2011]] ; [[#Leblanc--2012|Leblanc et al., 2012]] ; [[#van%20Dijk--2013|van Dijk et al., 2013]] ). The drying in southern Australia highlighted the need for hydrological models that adequately account for climate change ( [[#Vaze--2010|Vaze et al., 2010]] ; [[#Chiew--2014|Chiew et al., 2014]] ; [[#Saft--2016|Saft et al., 2016]] ; [[#Fowler--2018|Fowler et al., 2018]] ). The decline in streamflow was largely due to the decline in cool-season rainfall (which has been partly attributed to climate change) (Figure 11.2) ( [[#Timbal--2011|Timbal and Hendon, 2011]] ; [[#Post--2014|Post et al., 2014]] ; [[#Hope--2017|Hope et al., 2017]] ; [[#DELWP--2020|DELWP, 2020]] ), when most of the runoff in southern Australia occurs.

In New Zealand, precipitation has generally decreased in the north and increased in the southwest (Figure 11.2) (Harrington et al., 2014), but it is difficult to ascertain trends in the relatively short streamflow records. Glaciers in New Zealand’s southern alps have lost one third of their mass since 1977 ( [[#Mackintosh--2017|Mackintosh et al., 2017]] ; [[#Salinger--2019b|Salinger et al., 2019b]] ), and glacier mass loss in 2018 was at least 10 times more likely to occur with anthropogenic forcing than without ( [[#Vargo--2020|Vargo et al., 2020]] ).

<div id="11.3.3.2" class="h3-container"></div>

<span id="projected-impacts-2"></span>