WATER UNIFIES - International Conference on Water Scarcity, Global Changes, and Groundwater Management Responses

Rationale

Global changes—such as population growth, climate variability, and expanding urbanization, often combined with pollution—severely affect water availability and lead to chronic water shortage in a growing number of regions. It is estimated that within 25 years two-thirds of the world’s inhabitants will live in countries with serious water problems.

Inventive approaches and innovative technologies must be developed to call for every possible water resource. It has become evident that groundwater is one of the most important natural resources, being the sole resource for some countries and the main basis of irrigation worldwide, with more than one-third of the landmass irrigated by groundwater. It is the main source of drinking water for a number of countries. Water scarcity is not always the result of a physical lack of water resources, but also the result of inadequate institutional and managerial organization. For instance, according to the 2nd World Water Development Report, an estimated 26 countries (totaling more than 350 million people) with an apparent adequate availability of water suffer from severe water scarcity because of problems in water management and governance.

One critical issue, where science alone is insufficient, concerns shared water resources, especially internationally shared aquifers: scarcity increases competition among users, potentially leading to tensions and conflicts whose solutions involve a multi-disciplinary approach, based on political, cultural, ethical, and scientific instruments.

Therefore, while water scarcity and global change certainly demand innovative scientific and technological solutions, they also pose technical, socio-economic, cultural, and ethical challenges. This requires a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates science, technique, institutional organization, management, economy, culture, and history, combined with a good perception of risk and adequate use of risk/benefit analysis. Education and communication are critical connectors of the components of such an approach.

Studying water scarcity requires examining all types of water resources available in a watershed or a region, stressing the unique role of groundwater in water-scarce areas and its significance in most other areas, identifying difficulties due to the specific characteristics of groundwater and evaluating the adaptability of existing or new methods and instruments to these specificities.

The conference should serve as a place to:

share knowledge, experience, and know-how about water scarcity and climate change science in general; about the anticipated effects of global changes, either natural or induced by human activities; about issues relating to groundwater resources, such as desertification, health aspects, poverty, and hunger;
learn about professional practices that intend to cope with water scarcity and global change effects and that involve decision-making, risk/benefit analysis, action, finance, and communication;
present and discuss innovative scientific, technological, policy, economic, and institutional instruments and methods, and emphasize multi-disciplinary approaches and improvement of communication between stake-holders;
establish long-term collaborations.