Coastal aquifers are among the world’s most strategic freshwater resources, playing a critical role in the Mediterranean region by supplying water for drinking, agriculture, and industry and sustaining millions of livelihoods. Yet, these vital systems face escalating environmental and human-induced pressures from population growth, urbanisation, agricultural expansion, and industrial demand.
As highlighted by the Mediterranean Sea Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis and reinforced through successive UNEP/GEF initiatives, the degradation of coastal aquifers undermines marine and coastal ecosystems that depend on groundwater, including wetlands, lagoons, and estuaries. These challenges are further intensified by climate change, rising sea levels, limited monitoring, and weak management frameworks, placing the long-term sustainability of coastal aquifers at serious risk.
Organised under the UNEP/GEF MedProgramme’s Child Project 2.1, with UNESCO as an executing partner, the UNESCO International Symposium on “Coastal Aquifers, Sustainable Futures” provides a platform for scientific exchange, policy dialogue, and collaboration on the sustainable management of coastal aquifers. The symposium will highlight global and Mediterranean experiences, with a focus on priority aquifers.
It addresses key themes, such as:
- Seawater intrusion
- Submarine groundwater discharge
- Groundwater-dependent ecosystems
- Integrated approaches such as conjunctive surface water-groundwater management
Attendance by invitation only.