UNESCO seeks Director, Division of Water Sciences, Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme and Deputy Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences

UNESCO is seeking to appoint a renowned scientific leader and manager to serve as Director Division of Water Sciences, Secretary of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) and Deputy Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, based in Paris, France. UNESCO promotes international cooperation in science in the interests of peace, human rights and development. The last decade has seen a significant growth of the freshwater programmes of UNESCO responding to the priority status assigned to freshwater in recent years; as well as to the consideration of the potential impacts of global changes on this basic resource, and to the dramatic rise of freshwater issues in the international development and environment agenda.

The incumbent will provide intellectual, strategic and operational leadership for the freshwater programmes of UNESCO. The Division is the responsible unit for two major international water programmes: the International Hydrological Programme (IHP), the only intergovernmental global water science and education programme in the United Nations system, and the United Nations system-wide World Water Assessment Programme Secretariat led and hosted by UNESCO. In addition, it actively collaborates with the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education (Delft, The Netherlands), the largest international postgraduate school in water resources in the world.

Deadline: 23 January 2010

Position announcement

To apply

Reminder: UNESCO-PCCP and UNESCO-IHE to organize two short courses on water conflict and management

• Negotiation and Mediation for Water Conflict Management I to be held from 8-26 February 2010
• Negotiation and Mediation for Water Conflict Management II to be held from 1-19 March 2010

The first short course (WCM I) introduces the basic concepts of water cooperation, conflict prevention and mitigation and provides in-depth skills training. Contemporary issues related to transboundary water conflict will be discussed with invited speakers from the field of water governance and conflict resolution.

The second course (WCM II) offers a recap of basic concepts in, and introduces advanced processes related to, conflict resolution and cooperation building. It provides in-depth skills training. Cases of transboundary water conflicts are discussed with invited speakers from the field of water governance and conflict resolution.

The first is not a prerequisite for the second short course. Depending on their preference, participants can follow only one or both courses. Both course are only offered in English.

Scholarship information:

• For WCM I, fellowships may be available from 2011 onwards. In the meantime the tuition fee for 2010 is considerably reduced
• For WCM II, fellowships were available from NUFFIC/NFP (the deadline to apply for a scholarship for 2010 has passed)

For more information please check these links:

• Negotiation and Mediation for Water Conflict Management I
• Negotiation and Mediation for Water Conflict Management II

Or UNESCO-IHE’s page for short courses

Upon receipt of a complete filled application form, accepted applicants will receive an admission letter.

Inauguration and installation of Prof. Szöllösi-Nagy, Rector of UNESCO-IHE

"Reflections on the value of hydrological forecasting models".

On 5 November, Professor András Szöllösi-Nagy presented his Inaugural Address entitled: 'Learn from your errors - if you can! – reflections on the value of hydrological forecasting models.' Prof. Vonhoff, Chair of the Institute's Foundation Board, opened the special academic session, in which Prof. Szöllösi-Nagy was also formally installed as the new Rector of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.

A native of Hungary, Szöllösi-Nagy holds a Doctorate of Science in hydrology and stochastic systems, a PhD in water sciences, and a Doctorem Habilem in hydrology and water resources, the latter two from Budapest University of Technology.

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Access a complete list of water events around the world

Assessment of Snow, Glacier and Water Resources in Asia

Edited by Ludwig N. Braun, Wilfried Hagg, Igor V. Severskiy and Gordon Young
© German IHP/HWRP Secretariat, Koblenz, 2009

The topic of water availability and the possible effects of climate change on water resources are of paramount importance to the Central Asian countries. In the last decades, water supply security has turned out to be one of the major challenges for these countries. The supply initially ensured by snow and glaciers is increasingly being threatened by climate change. As yet, a comprehensive understanding and evaluation of the current knowledge on glaciers in Central Asia has been lacking. This publication aims at filling this knowledge gap in the Central Asian region while contributing to transboundary cooperation in the field of research on snow and glacier hydrology.

The individual contributions of this publication are based on lectures given at the Workshop on "Snow, Glacier and Water Resources in Asia", held in November 2006 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. The workshop was jointly organized by UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office, the Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia (CAREC), and the Institute of Geography, Republic of Kazakhstan.

This joint publication of UNESCO-IHP and the German IHP/HWRP National Committee is issued as Volume 8 in the IHP/HWRP-Berichte publication series of the German IHP/HWRP National Committee. The full-text PDF version will soon be made available for downloading on the IHP/HWRP site.

To order print copies, please contact the IHP Secretariat at ihp@unesco.org.

• The Po River basin generates nearly 40% of the Italian national GDP through intensive industry and other economic activities.
• The Po River basin extends from the Alps in the west to the Adriatic Sea in the east and covers an area of 74,000 km2. While 5% of the basin lies in Switzerland and France, most of it is situated in northern Italy. This is where the basin is the largest, its main channel the longest (650 km), and its discharge the biggest.
• The Po basin is home to some 16 million people (2001), and extends over 24% of Italy’s territory. The regions of Piedmont, Aosta Valley, Liguria, Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia Romagna and Tuscany lie partially or completely within it, as does the Autonomous Province of Trento.
• Average precipitation varies from a maximum of 2,000 mm in the Alpine range to slightly less than 700 mm in the eastern plains, with an annual average of 1,100 mm.
• Meteorological records indicate that the total number of rainy days in Italy decreased by 14% from 1951 to 1996. The decrease was most pronounced in winter. The amount of rainfall also declined, especially in central and southern Italy. In addition, during the same period, persistent droughts grew more frequent. Similar trends have been observed in the Po River basin. Average annual rainfall has diminished there by 20% since 1975, and the average yearly discharge at Pontelagoscuro, near the lower end of the river, has fallen by between 20% and 25%.
• The amount of available freshwater resources in the Po River basin is estimated at 77.7 billion m3.
• Agriculture in the Po River basin is highly developed, accounting for more than half of the land use in the basin. In fact, at 30,000 km2 it is the largest cultivated area in Italy, and accounts for 36% of the country’s agricultural production. Accordingly, agriculture has the highest water demand of any sector in the basin, withdrawing nearly 17 billion m3 per year. About 11,000 km2 of the cultivated area is irrigated, almost exclusively (87%) from surface watercourses.
• The Po River basin is also urbanized, and home to 28% of Italy’s population. Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia Romagna are the most populated regions and have a concentration of economic activities.

The section "Did You Know…?" is taken from the 3rd World Water Development Report "Water in a Changing World".

- International Hydrological Programme
- World Water Assessment Programme
- UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education
- Water-related Institutes and Centres under the Auspices of UNESCO
- UNESCO Water-related Chairs

Access the UNESCO Water e-Newsletter archives (starting at issue Nº 85)

For contributions or comments, contact the editor at waterportal@unesco.org