The Water Program
The IIASA Water Program works across various water-related sectors and management scales. It studies a range of possible future socioeconomic changes and technological innovations.
The program seeks to incorporate water science into assessment and planning studies at the nexus of water, food, energy, and environmental security. Its aim is to establish a critical mass of water knowledge through development of new modeling tools and data collection.
Objectives
- To compile, consolidate, and enhance knowledge of global water supply and demand balances
- To incorporate hydrology and hydrologic uncertainty into integrated assessment modeling efforts and scenario development
- To provide a sound scientific basis for responding to current and future global water challenges by assessing the robustness and complementarity of portfolios of potential solutions.
Latest water news
Could we cool the Earth with an ice-free Arctic?
The Arctic region is heating up faster than any other place on Earth, and as more and more sea ice is lost every year, we are already feeling the impacts. IIASA researchers explored strategies for cooling down the oceans in a world without this important cooling mechanism. More
Highlighting the importance and vulnerability of the world’s water towers
Mountains and highlands are often referred to as natural “water towers” because they provide lowland communities with essential freshwater for drinking, irrigation, industry, food, and energy production. A new Nature study provides insight into this valuable resource, which is crucial to the welfare of 1.9 billion people. More
Water Program Projects
Integrated Solutions for Water, Energy, and Land (ISWEL)
A ground-breaking study into sustainable solutions to jointly meet water, energy and land demands at the global level, and also zooming into two large transboundary basins facing multiple development and environmental challenges: The Zambezi and the Indus. More
Water Futures and Solutions
The Water Futures and Solutions Initiative is a ground-breaking study into sustainable solutions to meet local, national, and global water challenges. It is looking for additional partners from the development, business, and scientific community. More
Water models, Tools and data
Community Water Model
Opensource model to examine how future water demand will evolve in response to socioeconomic change and how water availability will change in response to climate. More
Global Hydro-economic Model
New tool to inform the design of cost-effective and sustainable water policy decisions More
Recent Events
IIASA at EGU 2019
IIASA researchers and staff will participate in the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2019, presenting n... More
IIASA and World Water Day 2019
World Water Day is held annually on 22 March and is about taking actions to tackle global water challenges. IIASA is inv... More
Water research at IIASA
IIASA research programs have continually been active in water science since the Institute's inception in 1972. IIASA played a prominent role in various recent large integrated water projects: WATCH (Water and Global Change); SCENES (Scenarios for Europe and Neighbouring States).
IIASA Water Program researchers have developed a new model to study #water #systems across whole continents. Study published today in @theAGU journal Water Resources Research | https://t.co/lLNS6Nq1pT #watermanagement #waterenergyfood #waterresources #watersystems pic.twitter.com/uFjqsh7GIB
— IIASA (@IIASAVienna) October 12, 2018
PUBLICATIONS
Willaarts B , Lechón Y, Mayor B, de la Rúa C, & Garrido A (2020). Cross-sectoral implications of the implementation of irrigation water use efficiency policies in Spain: A nexus footprint approach. Ecological Indicators 109: no.105795. DOI:10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105795.
Strokal M, Kahil T , Wada Y , Albiac J, Bai Z, Ermolieva T, Langan S, Ma L, et al. (2020). Cost-effective management of coastal eutrophication: A case study for the yangtze river basin. Resources, Conservation and Recycling 154: e104635. DOI:10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104635.
Chen S, Long H, Chen B, Feng K, & Hubacek K (2020). Urban carbon footprints across scale: Important considerations for choosing system boundaries. Applied Energy 259: e114201. DOI:10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.114201.
Hagemann N, van der Zanden EH, Willaarts B , Holzkämper A, Volk M, Rutz C, Priess JA, & Schönhart M (2020). Bringing the sharing-sparing debate down to the ground—Lessons learnt for participatory scenario development. Land Use Policy 91: e104262. DOI:10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104262.
Chen S, Chen B, Feng K, Liu Z, Fromer N, Tan X, Alsaedi A, Hayat T, et al. (2020). Physical and virtual carbon metabolism of global cities. Nature Communications 11 (1) DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-13757-3.
Hunt J , Zakeri B, Falchetta G, Nascimento A, Wada Y , & Riahi K (2020). Mountain Gravity Energy Storage: A new solution for closing the gap between existing short- and long-term storage technologies. Energy 190: e116419. DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2019.116419.
Hunt JH , Nascimento A, Diuana FA, de Assis Brasil Weber N, Castro GM, Chaves AC, Mesquita ALA, Colling AV, et al. (2020). Cooling down the world oceans and the earth by enhancing the North Atlantic Ocean current. SN Applied Sciences 2 (1) DOI:10.1007/s42452-019-1755-y.
Immerzeel W, Lutz A, Andrade M, Bahl A, Biemans H, Bolch T, Hyde S, Brumby S, et al. (2020). Importance and vulnerability of the world’s water towers. Nature 577: 364-369. DOI:10.1038/s41586-019-1822-y.