Summary

News

   - 19th session of the IHP Intergovernmental Council
   - Announcing: 10th Kovacs Colloquium 2010 - Hydrocomplexity: New Tools for Solving Wicked Water Problems
   - PCCP and UNESCO-IHE announce two short courses on "Negotiation for Water Conflict Management"
   - ICIWaRM co-sponsors North American HELP Basin Organizations Workshop on Lessons Learned
   - HELP organizes "River Basin Level Responses to Water Scarcity and Drought under Uncertain Climate Futures" for the Douro River Basin

Vacancies

   - Fixed-Term Researcher - International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) of the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

Did you know?

Facts and figures about Tunisia

---

e-Newsletter archives

Subscribe & Unsubscribe

Visit the UNESCO Water Portal

---

News

19th session of the IHP Intergovernmental Council

The Intergovernmental Council of the International Hydrological Programme (IHP) of UNESCO will hold its 19th session from 5 to 9 July 2010 at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris.

The IHP Council has overall governing responsibility for planning, defining priorities and supervising the execution of the IHP. The Council is composed of 36 Member States of UNESCO elected by the General Conference of UNESCO at its ordinary sessions held every two years.

During this session, the Council will principally examine the relevant outcomes of the 35th session of the General Conference, including the Organization’s Programme and Budget for 2010-2011 (35 C/5), particularly as these relate to the implementation of the Seventh Phase of IHP (IHP-VII, 2008-2013). The Council will also look into recent institutional developments in IHP, review progress on the implementation of the resolutions and other recommendations adopted by the 18th session of the IHP Council (Paris, June 2008), examine the status of UNESCO’s water-related category 1 institute and category 2 centres under its auspices, and report on the formulation of the Eighth Phase of IHP (IHP-VIII, 2014 – 2019, including the endorsement of the related concept paper.

A three-hour scientific session will be organized in the framework of the 19th session of the IHP Council, under the theme "Hydrological Sciences for Policy Responses to Uncertain Global Change Futures". A number of speakers, including the award winner of the 2010 International Hydrology Prize who will deliver the keynote address, will be invited to deliver scientific presentations. This scientific session would serve as an outreach activity addressing both the IHP scientific community and policy makers from UNESCO Member States.

Access the session documents

Announcing: 10th Kovacs Colloquium 2010 - Hydrocomplexity: New Tools for Solving Wicked Water Problems

Human activities have become major drivers of change in the Earth’s biosphere, resulting in deterioration of water quality, overexploitation of freshwater resources, adverse effects of hydrological hazards and landscape degradation, which make water problems complex and wicked. The same activities also affect the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide goods and services on which human well-being depends. There is a need for community based transdisciplinary management tools to provide a better understanding of water as both an abiotic resource and as a service delivered by ecosystems. At UNESCO, Paris on 2-3 July 2010, invited speakers will deliver presentations on the state-of-the-art of aspects of the hydrocomplexity and tools which identify areas where gaps exist and outline areas for future research and application. Open discussions will then take place. In addition to the technically water-orientated contributions, the programme will include more general methodological presentations of the underlying concepts from policy and water management perspectives. Such perspectives will be the basis for establishing the practical questions to be addressed by water management tools and to explore new horizons in trans-disciplinary water sciences.

This colloquium will focus on many emerging tools to solve wicked water issues in a variety of ecosystems and climatic zones using examples from a number of countries. There are three key objectives of this colloquium:

• Synthesize hydrocomplexity and wicked water problems in different geographical settings
• Show how tools describing interrelationships between the hydrological cycle, livelihoods and ecosystems can contribute to more cost-effective and environment-friendly water management
• Highlight systems solutions and technology transfer opportunities through North-South and South-South linkages.

Papers | Detailed agenda

For further information contact Prof. Shahbaz Khan

PCCP and UNESCO-IHE announce two short courses on "Negotiation for Water Conflict Management"

The UNESCO-IHP programme "From Potential Conflict to Cooperation Potential" (PCCP) and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education formerly announce two short courses to be held in February and March 2011. Each course, of three weeks in duration, will focus on "Negotiation for Water Conflict Management".

Course I Flyer | Course II Flyer

ICIWaRM Co-Sponsors North American HELP Basin Organizations Workshop on Lessons Learned

Thirty social and natural scientists, engineers, managers and decision-makers representing six North American and one Central American Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy (HELP) basins gathered at Portland State University, Oregon, USA on 10-12 May to share experiences and lessons learned in their catchments. The basins represented were the San Pedro (Arizona and Mexico), Willamette (Oregon), Upper Washita (Oklahoma), Lake Champlain (New York, Vermont, and Quebec, Canada), Iowa-Cedar (Iowa and Minnesota), Luquillo (Puerto Rico), and Panama Canal.

The Portland workshop aimed at strengthening the North America HELP (NA-HELP) basin network by:

1. Exchanging new scientific information on climate change, hydrologic ecosystem services, and water governance for integrated water resource management;
2. Enhancing the role and visibility of the NA-HELP basins within the multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional partnering initiatives currently emerging in water management communities; and
3. Increasing management capacity for using climate information at the basin level with multi-jurisdictional partners through the social learning process and through adaptive management.

Read more

HELP organizes "River Basin Level Responses to Water Scarcity and Drought under Uncertain Climate Futures" for the Douro River Basin

On 27-28 May 2010, an International HELP Douro River Basin Symposium "River Basin Level Responses to Water Scarcity and Drought under Uncertain Climate Futures" was held at Mirandela, Portugal. This symposium was attended by participants from all continents as well as key stakeholders from the Douro River, a transboundary river between Portugal and Spain. The Minister for Environment and Spatial Planning highly appreciated the HELP initiative in the Douro and the Guadiana and stressed the role of UNESCO and member states in sustainable water resources management.

More information (In Portuguese)

Article on the Symposium (In Portuguese)

The Mirandela Statement

---

Vacancies

Fixed-Term Researcher - International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) of the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

In recent years, water-related disasters become more frequent throughout the world and cause serious damage especially to developing countries vulnerable to such disasters. To prevent or mitigate such damage, ICHARM conducts research in technology and strategy in water hazards and associated risk management. The center also provides training in those fields for trainees mainly from developing countries. Furthermore, it has been offering a master program called the "Water-Related Disaster Management" and is planning to launch a doctoral program called the "Disaster Management Program" this coming October, both of which are in collaboration with GRIPS. On this occasion, ICHARM is seeking a researcher with advanced teaching and research expertise and competence required for those projects.

The position requires conducting research in technology and strategy in water hazards and associated risk management. Also, the researcher will be required to teach trainees mainly from developing countries and supervise their research activities.

Deadline: 20 July 2010.

More information

---

Did you know...? Facts and figures about Tunisia

• The predominant climate types are Mediterranean in the north and Saharan in the south. Four climatic sub-regions can be identified: sub-humid in the far north, semi-arid in the northwest and at Cap Bon, arid in the centre and hyper-arid and desert in most of the south. Over 40% of the country lies in the hyper-arid zone. Although average annual rainfall amounts to 220 mm, geographic variation is substantial, with regional averages ranging from 1,500 mm in the north to 50 mm in the far south, in the heart of the Sahara.
• The arid plains that mark the northern limit of the Sahara include many depressions, locally called chotts and sebkhats, which fill with water in winter and dry up in summer. Their water is highly saline. The largest chott, Jerid, is a 500 km2 salt lake.
• Tunisia has a dense hydrographic network in the north, whose river basins account for 81% of the national surface water potential. Oued Mejerda, which rises in Algeria, is the biggest river, with an annual water potential of around 0.8 billion m3. The south is characterized by large, deep aquifer networks whose low recharge rates make them barely renewable.
• Tunisia’s annual water potential is estimated at 4.8 billion m3, with groundwater amounting to about half (2.1 billion m3). In 2005, the exploitation rate was roughly 80% for deep aquifers and an unsustainable 108% for shallow aquifers.
• The high variation in rainfall, amount of arid land and overuse of groundwater resources make storage of freshwater a vital necessity in Tunisia. In 2005, there were 27 large dams, 200 small hillside dams and 660 hillside lakes, with a combined capacity of 1.8 billion m3 per year, amounting to 66% of the total surface water potential.
• In 2006, agriculture accounted for 81% of overall water consumption.
• In urban areas, drinking water coverage had reached almost 100% by 1993. Tunisia achieved this by transferring large amounts of water from the humid north to the arid south, and by installing desalination facilities to treat brackish water in the tourist areas of the southeast. In rural areas, access to drinking water expanded from 62% in 1990 to 84%, on average, in 2006. Over the same period, coverage for the country as a whole advanced from 82% to 94%.

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

---

UNESCO's Water Family consists of the following:

- 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

Archives

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

 

Subscribe & Unsubscribe

Subscribe Unsubscribe

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