Volume 1 of a three-volume final report describes, synthesizes and
analyzes the results of the four-year Integrated Research Project
CIRCE - Climate Change and Impact Research: Mediterranean Environment,
funded by the EU 6th Framework Programme. Conducted under the auspices
of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Rome, Italy,
CIRCE was designed to predict and to quantify the physical impacts of
climate change in the Mediterranean, and to assess the most influential
consequences for the region's population. This volume incorporates the
first two parts of the report, reviewing current knowledge of observed
climate variability and trends in the Mediterranean, and including
descriptions of available temperature and precipitation station and
gridded data sets.