Congress Theme and Topics

GLOBAL CHANGES AND WATER RESOURCES: confronting the expanding and diversifying pressures

The objective of the XIIIth World Water Congress is to enhance the world’s knowledge and raise global consciousness of the impact of global changes on water resources. The Congress will bring together wide-interest participation, exhibitions and scientific communications about our planet’s water resources. This Congress will represent an important global meeting point for open dialogue between public and private partners, between users and decision makers and between developing, emerging and developed countries. In order to contribute to this global reflection and action, the Congress will organise numerous debates, presentations and exhibitions among key water stakeholders.

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 scientifi c 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 oversimplifi cation. The global water cycle is a complex system, always in fl ux, 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.

1. WATER AVAILABILITY, USE AND MANAGEMENT

• OS1a Mediterranean
• OS1c Europe and North America
• OS1d Tropical zones
• OS1f Africa
• OS1h Multi-stakeholders and institutions for IWRM
• OS1i IWRM to combat water scarcity
• OS1j IWRM: Sustainable management of complex water
• systems
• OS1k IWRM and water allocation
• OS1m Water quality 1
• OS1n Water quality 2
• OS1q Hydrological diagnosis and forecasting: complex
• aquifers
• OS1s Hydrological diagnosis and forecasting: Advanced
• computational approaches

2. TOWARDS THE FUTURE: WATER RESOURCES AND GLOBAL CHANGES

• OS2a Trade and globalisation
• OS2b Environment and its variability

3. CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISASTERS

• OS3c Climate change: detecting trends, projecting future
• OS3d Climate change: Planning, adaptation and mitigation
• OS3e Regional and nationwide scenarios 1
• OS3f Regional and nationwide scenarios 2
• OS3g Climate change: disasters and extreme events

4. DEVELOPMENT OF WATER RESOURCES AND INFRASTRUCTURE

• OS4b Risk management 2
• OS4c Modelling and information management
• OS4d Remote sensing, DSS and GIS applcations
• OS4e Infrastructure
• OS4g Risk management 1
• OS4h Risk management 3
• OS4i Water and energy

5. WATER GOVERNANCE AND WATER SECURITY

• OS5a Managing water under conflict situations
• OS5b Governing water towards sustainability
• OS5c Major international rivers
• OS5d Transboundary water issues
• OS5e Multiple and multisector uses
• OS5f Governance of water quality
• OS5g Human rights and local participation
• OS5k Local water governance 1
• OS5m Facing international and regional water governance
• challenges
• OS5n Institutional and legal development

6. WATER CONSERVATION AND DEMAND MANAGEMENT

• OS6a Economic instruments
• OS6c Water markets and water sharing approaches
• OS6d Water pricing: approaches and impacts
• OS6f The human dimension of water management
• OS6g Public-private partnership
• OS6j Urban and regional water conservation and reuse
• OS6k Rural water conservation and reuse

7. FINANCING WATER DEVELOPMENT

• OS7a Financing water development

8. CAPACITY BUILDINGS

• OS8a Capacity building

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