Sudha Nambudiri KOCHI: Depleting groundwater resources, unexpected floods, cloudbursts and irregular monsoons are an indication that India is showing signs of climate change. As a part of an initiative to study the various changes happening in view of the global climate change, the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the Natural Environment Research Council initiative, the UK, will fund research on the 'Changing Water Cycle' in the region. According to sources,this programme aims at understanding how local to regionalscale hydrological and biogeochemical processes are responding and will respond to changing climate and land use. Also, their consequent impacts on the sustainable use of soil and water will come under the research. It aims at understanding the consequences of the changing water cycle for waterrelated natural hazards, including floods and droughts, and also to improve prediction and mitigation of these hazards. The Changing Water Cycle programme directly relates to delivery of strategic goals with respect to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Changes in the water cycle owing to climate and land use are expected to play a central role in governing a vast range of environmental impacts. At the same time, predictions of waterrelated variables show very high uncertainty: For example, as shown in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fourth assessment report (IPCC AR4), a fact that has worried several governments. The Changing Water Cycle programme will develop an integrated, quantitative understanding of the changes taking place in the global water cycle involving all components of the earth system, improving predictions for the next few decades of regional precipitation, 'evapotranspiration', soil moisture, hydrological storage and fluxes. This programme will address the urgent needs to understand the changes taking place now, predict changes that will take place over the next few decades, and, through the Living With Environmental Change programme (LWEC), work with partners to build resilience, mitigate problems and develop adaptive solutions. The challenge is to develop an integrated, quantitative understanding of the changes taking place in the global water cycle, involving all components of the earth system the atmosphere, ocean, land surface and geosphere, cryosphere and biosphere.