Organiser
Organisation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Representative: Ximing Cai
E-mail: xmcai@illinois.edu
Organiser
Organisation: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Representative: Ximing Cai
E-mail: xmcai@illinois.edu
Special Session description
The United Nation (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperityfor people and the planet, now and into the future" by means of seventeen interconnected global goals. Among thosegoals, SDG 6 on “Clean Water and Sanitation” focuses directly on water resources. In addition, SDG 14 “Life belowWater” and SDG 15 “Life on Land” are relevant; in general, water as a basic resource for both human life andbiological and ecological systems, is connected to all of the 17 SDGs via natural and anthropogenic processes.Localizing and realizing SDGs will require deep transformations in every country/ region and a recontextualizingtoward a locally relevant subset of goals, due to the diversity of local conditions and priorities across regions in both thedeveloped and developing world, local priority disagreements, competing interests and trade-offs and synergies amongmultiple sectors and stakeholders, and country/region specific risks posed by future uncertainties. However, currentSDG localization efforts are challenged by appropriate institutional support (especially the participation localcommunities), future uncertainties and risk, limited interactions between science and practice communities, and limitedcommunication among countries and regions. Underlying the “Project Everyone” campaign of UN Agenda 2030toward the SDGs, IWRA (International Water Resources Association) is growing support to SDGs implementation,especially via a task force committee (TFC) on Water & SDGs. The overall goal of the TFC is to downscale WATerrelevant SDGs (DWAT-SDGs) to the country/region, basin, and local scale to facilitate SDGs realization and supportsustainable water resources management everywhere in the world. To achieve the goal, the IWRA IFC proposes aspecial session on Water & SDGs, with the following objectives: 1. Promoting international coordination andcollaboration on SDGs implementation, especially for water management, 2. Exchanging DWAT-SDGs research,education, and practice, and 3. Promoting evidence-based decision support tools for local water management practices.Via the special session presentation and discussion, we expect to promote DWAT-SDGs around the world, especiallythrough establishment of guidelines for best management practices at the basin and sub-basin scales, and developinglocal SDG water indicators via pilot basins, cities, and countries. This session calls for papers on, but not limited to: a)Local/basin/country experiences b) Research, extension, and education advances c) Collaboration between scientistsand stakeholders d) Monitoring and assessment accounting and benchmarking against planetary boundaries and socialthresholds e) Institutional development for the implementation of country, region, and local-level SDGs
Documents