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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.
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. |
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