Water Futures and Solutions: Flagship Project
The Water Futures and Solutions idea began to take shape as two reports, on drivers and stylized scenarios from the World Water Scenarios project, were released during the World Water Forum.
The project description was written and partnerships were formed during the year with the World Water Council, the International Water Association, the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs of the Republic of Korea, UNESCO, and UN-Water. Background information on the conceptual framework for the project and a review of the critical dimensions, drivers, existing data and scenario processes was produced. In addition, advances were made on a number of associated products important for the assessment of the drivers of water demand, as described below.
To do this, WAT will:
• Assess the current state of water resource availability and demand in time, space, and quality.
• Assess the social and institutional regimes by which water is governed and their effectiveness in the bio-physical and socioeconomic settings in which they are found.
• Create and test a number of cross-disciplinary integrated scenarios for future water resources by bringing together decision makers from multiple sectors to discuss the types of futures that are important to consider and to develop a common vision for the future.
• Perform an integrated, multi-model assessment of the impact of the scenarios that will i) bring together hydrologic models and more focused sector models; and ii) provide a measure of the uncertainty within the modeling through the use of multiple models.
• Assemble information on water management options, assessing the robustness of portfolios of options across the scenarios, to find those that work most effectively together at various scales for the conditions faced in any particular region.
• Develop knowledge sharing networks and decision support tools to help find the options that are most effective and robust for a particular setting. The Water Futures & Solutions project builds on the work accomplished by GEA, IPCC scenario development work, GAEZ assessments, and UNESCO’s World Water Scenarios Project. It will provide a better understanding of the impact of different water-related decisions and choices on sustainable development and human well-being.