Climate variability and change occur at multiple spatial scales, from global to local, with different characteristics. Understanding the evolution of climate at regional scale requires complementary approaches with respect to the global climate, as it requires to describe processes that occur at small spatial scales, generally lower than 1000km, and in some applications are the order of (or less) 10km. These scales are described with two approaches (not necessarily alternative): High resolution deterministic models with a very dense grid that describes the variability of the high-resolution area, and statistical methods, which exploit relationships between large-scale variables (example: the structure of the atmospheric pressure field) and local variables (example: wind or temperature measured locally by a weather station).

The description of the climate at the regional and local level is essential to produce results that are useful to address climate change adaptation in practice. While the climate is necessarily a global problem, on the other hand its impacts are reflected at the local level, where they affect coastal management, agriculture, energy demand, water resources, coastal management, the ecosystems.

The Mediterranean region is a typical case where a regional scale analyzes are essential due to its complex morphology and location in a transition zone between subtropical regimes and mid-latitudes. The Mediterranean region has been identified as one of the regions of the globe most vulnerable to climate change , mainly because of future reduction and irregular availability of water resources, in many areas where they already are critically scarce.

Ongoing research includes the description of climate change in the Mediterranean in terms of seasonal averages and extremes of climate using both regional models and statistical methods.