UNESCO organizes workshop: Adapting to the impacts of global changes on river basins and aquifer systems

Global changes brought on by population growth, climate change, urbanization, expansion of infrastructure, migration, land conversion and pollution is altering the Earth and the way it functions. Although these changes are global, no institution or country can face the challenges they pose alone. UNESCO-IHP, as the only intergovernmental programme on water sciences with a focus on freshwater in the UN system, can foster the cooperation needed to bring all players together, whether they are Member States, research institutions, universities, UN agencies, NGOs, or national or international associations. The role of UNESCO IHP is to offer a platform to facilitate and support research and capacity to help to understand the scope of global change impacts on water resources in order to manage the water resources in a sustainable and adaptive way.

On 8-9 September 2008, UNESCO will convene the workshop “Adapting to the impacts of global changes on river basins and aquifer systems”, which will aim to bring together scientists form different networks such as HELP, GWSP, G-WADI, GRAPHIC, ISARM, FRIEND, IFI, ISI, IRI, IWMI, and WMO, Universities, research organizations and centres in order to:

• identify key research topics related to global change issues
• identify common topics for synergy and coordination of research agendas for different IHP projects and networking partners focusing on the major drivers related to global change and their impacts on hydrology and water resources
• develop a background paper on global change issues
• develop a global change network

The development of a background paper which will be a contribution to the Global Change and Risk Management theme of the 5th World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey. Furthermore the background paper will be used by UNESCO-IHP to help foster and streamline the research on global change issues.