13th IWRA World Water Congress: Global Changes & Water Resources

The interactions between water resources and global change are numerous and complex. Much is at stake for the future. The global change concept is made of three interdependent fields:

1. The intrinsic natural variability of the environment is a permanent characteristic today as it has been in the near and the distant past. Water is a key player in this variability, acting all over the Earth’s surface as a medium of matter transport, a sculptor of landscapes and a source of life and evolution.


2. The impact of human societies that modify their environment to their needs, particularly for crop and animal production in order to secure their food supplies. The evaluation and the integrated management of water resources represent decisive factors in these vital priorities for humanity.


3. Current climate change, visible since approximately one century ago, and its predominantly anthropological origins today receive general consensus from the scientific community. Global warming, a premier instance of global change, is strongly impacting the extent of glacier and snow cover; it also has a probable effect on precipitation and water flow regimes; and on the frequency and intensity of extreme events such as floods and droughts.

These three fields of climate change are undoubtedly inseparable. Recently however, there have been tendencies to isolate the third domain, climate change, from the two other fi elds, imputing that this alone is the cause of the adverse consequences of global change. But this is oversimplification. The global water cycle is a complex system, always in flux, never achieving a balance as natural and manmade phenomenae impact on it and constantly shift the hypothetical and unattainable state of equilibrium.

The gap in water assessment and usage between the North and South is a real concern where perception and understanding of water uses differs. In the richest and most developed countries, water use issues relate to industrial considerations and to the provision of leisure and domestic water to private consumers. On the other hand, in less-developed countries, where economies and development are based mainly on agriculture, water uses and challenges relate mainly to crops and livestock. In the future, local and regional realities will become increasingly complex and will see growing disparities in access to water resources. More than ever before, water will be a key issue and will drive mankind to take new initiatives and to invent new approaches. The fundamental objective remains identical - to ensure that every human being has access to good quality water resources in the coming decades.

Congress topics

1. WATER AVAILABILITY, USE AND MANAGEMENT
   • Integrated water resources management
   • Water quality management: surface and ground water
   • Hydrological diagnosis and forecasting
   • Regional sessions (Africa, Mediterranean Basin, North America, Latin America, Asia, Australia and Pacific Islands, Europe; water management for monsoon countries)


2. TOWARDS THE FUTURE: WATER RESOURCES AND GLOBAL CHANGES:
   • Implications of assuring water, energy and food security
   • Impacts of trade and globalisation on the water sector
   • Technological development (biotechnology, desalination, etc.)
   • Population growth, urbanisation and economic development
   • Information and communication revolution
   • Human development, economic changes and water
   • Urbanisation, megacities, towns and rural areas
   • Expanding slums and informal sectors


3. CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISASTERS
   • Post-2007 IPCC Report: implications for the water sector
   • Linking climatology, hydrology and water resources management
   • How good is our knowledge base?
   • How to manage water under increasing climatic fluctuations
   • Earthquakes, cyclones, hurricanes and tsunamis
   • Forced migration


4. DEVELOPMENT OF WATER RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE
   • Food security, irrigation, food trade and markets
   • Urban infrastructure
   • Data, monitoring and information technology
   • Risk management: linking structural and non-structural approaches for flood and drought management
   • Environmental investments
   • Energy and water resources


5. WATER GOVERNANCE AND WATER SECURITY: 30 YEARS AFTER THE UN MAR DEL PLATA CONFERENCE OF 1977
   • Water governance: best practices
   • Managing water under conflicts and cooperation: Security threat implications
   • Multiple and multisectoral uses
   • Transboundary river basins and shared aquifers
   • Instruments for water quality management
   • Water access as a human right
   • Improving legal and institutional frameworks
   • Role of local authorities and civil society
   • Roles of bilateral, multilateral and professional global institutions


6. WATER CONSERVATION AND DEMAND MANAGEMENT
   • Economic instruments and water pricing
   • The social aspect of water
   • Water reuse and conservation technologies
   • Roles of the private sector
   • Education and public awareness


7. FINANCING WATER DEVELOPMENT
   • Private-Public Partnerships
   • Use of economic instruments
   • Roles of bilateral and multilateral institutions and donors
   • Innovative financial approaches
   • Role of micro-credit and local financing mechanism


8. CAPACITY BUILDING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
   • South-South knowledge and experience transfer
   • New and innovative ways to build capacity at all levels